Semantic Differential Test Research Articles

The Semantic Differential

This study investigated the relationship between the Purdue Master Attitude Test and a previously developed semantic differential test. The Ss consisted of 247 General Education Physical Science students at the State University College at Buffalo, New York. The data was analyzed by an analysis of covariance with the .05 level of significance set as the point of rejection. It was concluded that the two tests were equally effective in their measurement of attitude change.

PSYCHOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF LONG-TERM IMPRISONMENT*

A Semantic Differential test was administered to 175 men serving determinate sentences of 10 years and above or indeterminate sentences in prisons through out England in order to assess attitudes to concepts selected either because of their relevance to the experience of imprisonment or because of their general importance. The sample was divided into four groups, matched for age but differing in mean total lengths of accumulated imprisonment experienced. Self-evaluation was found to decrease significantly with imprisonment. Evidence was presented which supported the contention that imprisonment itself, rather than release-selection procedures, was responsible for this trend. There was some evidence that increasing imprisonment was associated with more unfavourable attitudes to the concepts of work and father. It was suggested that these latter two changes might be a consequence of the breakdown of relationships between prisoners and their families.

The colors of emotion1

Research on synesthesia has consistently found an association between colors and emotions. In order to try to determine whether the basis for this phenomenon is culture specific or universal, a test to determine color and emotion associations was administered to a sample of Tzeltal‐speaking adults from highland Chiapas and U.S. college undergraduates. The results of the color‐emotion test indicate that within the limits of translation equivalence color chips and emotion terms show very similar patterns of association in both cultures. These results seem to indicate that the phenomenon of synesthesia is mediated by the universal factors uncovered by Osgood's semantic differential test. The results also indicate that saturation is a major factor in color‐emotion synesthesia.

Language meaning (gender shaping) among deaf and hearing students.

To evaluate the meaning of words within the language system for both deaf and hearing students and to determine whether substantially different meanings exist for these groups, 53 deaf students and 69 non-deaf students were randomly selected from classes of senior English at the Virginia School for the Deaf in Staunton, Virginia, and the Wilson Memorial High School in Fishersville, Virginia. The Gender Association Survey1 which is based on semantic differential tests was administered in February of 1971. Ss reacted to abstract and concrete English nouns on a masculinity, femininity continuum. MAN Masculine Feminine

Perceptual dynamics of drug addicts as measured by the Semantic Differential Test.

The perception of other persons, concepts, and drugs was measured in 54 male drug addicts by means of a 17-item Semantic Differential Test incorporating the three main factors: Evaluation, Potency, Activity. Major findings were that: (a) Ss denied the reality of their situation by showing stronger identification with “straight” persons than with addicts; (b) the major effect of taking “your favorite drug” (in most, but not all, cases heroin) was to make the self more relaxed and calm, and other persons and the world in general less threatening; (c) marihuana is extremely highly regarded apparently because it produces all the desired effects but none of the drawbacks of other drugs; (d) Ss can indeed perceive the criminality of an act but not to the extent other groups do.

Disturbances of connotative meaning in aphasia

Left brain-damaged patients with Broca's aphasia made significantly more errors than did right brain-damaged and hospitalized control patients on a forced-choice semantic differential test that required judgments of connotative meaning. No general conclusions could be reached regarding disturbances of connotative meaning in aphasia. However, a significant bias in aphasics toward making positive evaluations, e.g., Good or Beautiful rather than Bad or Ugly, was tentatively interpreted as an accentuation of the so-called “Pollyanna Hypothesis”, a tendency to look on the bright side of life. Further research is needed in which both connotative and denotative disturbances are assessed in aphasic patients with more precisely-defined loci of lesions.

A SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL COMPARISON OF CERTAIN ATTITUDES OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS FROM CO‐EDUCATIONAL AND SINGLE‐SEX SCHOOL TOWARDS THEIR SCHOOLS*

Summary. Scores on the ‘evaluation,’ ‘potency’ and ‘activity’ of four concepts concerning school and four about the university were obtained from a Semantic Differential test completed by 274 first‐year university students. The women from girls’ schools tended to evaluate ‘my school’ and ‘school teacher’ lower than did the co‐educated women (P<<0–1 and 0–2, respectively). On the Pleasant/Unpleasant scale within the evaluation of ‘my school’ both co‐educated men and women rated their schools as more pleasant than did men and women from single‐sex schools (P<0–05).Co‐educated students rated ‘school,’ ‘teacher,’ and ‘classroom’ as significantly less potent than did those from single‐sex schools. The latter saw ‘university’ as less potent than ‘my school’ (P<0–01), ‘lecture‐theatre’ less than ‘classroom’ (P<0–05), while the co‐educated did not.

The application of the semantic differential test in a case of manic-depressive psychosis.

The use of the Semantic Differential Test in the case of a manic-depressive 14-year-old girl is reported, and its usefulness is discussed.

A study of dentally anxious children using the semantic differential test.

A study of dentally anxious children using the semantic differential test.

Responses to science concepts on a semantic differential instrument and achievement in freshman physics and chemistry

AbstractScores on a science‐related semantic differential test are small but significant predictors of physics and chemistry achievement.

The levels hypothesis and the study of stimulus value of projective test items.

Summary Anagrams and semantic differential (S-D) test responses of Ss for whom words were “loaded” on a free association test were compared with those of Ss for whom the words were neutral. No differences in rate of word building or mean productivity of the two groups on the anagrams test were found. Mean S-D scale values similarly failed to differentiate between the two groups. However, when numbers of neutral (0) and extreme (+3 and −3) responses were compared, “loaded” Ss were found on the whole to rate words more neutrally or more positively. The conclusion was that the stimulus value of the words in the associative condition could not be directly determined from responses in other conditions. The strategy of studying stimulus value of projective test items by using those items as stimuli on tests eliciting different levels of response was, therefore, questioned. Several other related experimental strategies which may mix response levels were also discussed and more appropriate techniques were suggested.

集団における対人認知patternの実験的研究: I

The aim of this study is to analyse the patterns of interpersonal perception from the viewpoint of personality. A pattern of interpersonal perception is regarded as a subordinate socio-psychological concept like attitude, opinion and belief. Personality is here deemed as the general behavior-modality which appears in the interpersonal situation and it is reflected on the patterns of perception.The writer also tried to use empathy, a fundamental concept in the previous studies, as an independent variable of the perception-patterns. In the present report, Part I, the composition of the scale and the methods of measuring behavior modality and empathy are to be described.1. Composition of Semantic Differential Test:It is a fundamental problem in the analysis of perception pattern how to describe and classify the relation between oneself and others in the interpersonal situation. In the present study, a new Semantic Differential Test for the group activities and membership was composed, the technique by Osgood et al. being referred to. By means of ten concepts regarding a group, samples of adjectives were collected and scales were arranged on the basis of 25 pairs of opposite adjectives. A group of 54 subjects, second-year high school students, was required to rate eight concepts regarding the group in terms of the above scales. On the basis of these data correlations were obtained between the scales, and in terms of thefactor-analysis three factors, Friendliness-Evaluation,Dominance-Potency,Participation-Activity, were sampled out. The Semantic Differential Test, consisting of a couple scales for each factors was thus composed.2. Measurement on the Behavior Modality:The general behavior modality indicated in the interpersonal situation was measured by the mutual ratings among the classmates. Eight types of the hypothetical modality were set up by the combinations of three Semantic Differential factors which formed the patterns of the perception of oneself and others. On this basis the data of the mutual ratings were classified and the modality types were thus judged.Exp. 1) In order to examine these hypothetical types of modality, a modality-measurement was conducted for the subjects, a total of 180 second-year high school. The results indicated that these actually existed only six among the eight types of the hypothetical modality.Exp. 2) In order to clarify the psychological significance of the hypothetical modality, afact-or-analysis was attempted between the actual modality types, 54 third-year high school students serving as subjects. It was evident from the result that three statistically independent were not independent of each other in psychological meaning, and it was consequently verified that there did not exist eight types of the hypothetical modality in practice.3. Measurement of Empathy:There are two standpoints employed in the method of empathy measurement, that is, phenomenological and depth-psychological. The potential, depthpsychological empathy was here measured, according to the latter standpoint. It was required to rate in terms of the Semantic Differential Scale these sentences which described an outlook of a human being independent of the actual interpersonal relations. The degree of empathy was measured by the deviation of each datum from the averaged norm of all members.Exp. 1) In order to investigate whether the appropriate sensibility would be measured for the cue, we examine the relation of the empathy to the patterns of perception, a total 180 second-year high school students serving as subjects. The result indicated that what was measured was not the appropriate sensibility but only the sensitivity for the cue.Exp. 2) In the above investigation, we tried to measure the empathy from the deviation of perception the concept and sentence-rating, 260 subjects of second-year high school students.