1. Osgood, C., & Suci, G. (1957). Repoted that the semantic deferential questions and examines people’s attitude towards concepts, things or ideas. It is a good measure of attitude because it covers all ranges of opinions and thoughts. The questions have contrasting adjectives that contains every aspect of responses. For example, good vs. bad, ugly vs. beautiful, real vs. fake, truth vs. reality among others. These contrasting adjectives are placed on a bipolar scale. The bipolar scale records the varying degree of attitudes. In this study, we examined the nurses’ responses on HIV/AIDS.
2. While using a semantic scale, it is significant for one to know that there are no correct or wrong answers. However, the stimulus instigates responses and it is recorded at the top of the scale. The stimulus could be a phrase, word, question or a statement.
3. The adjectives are used according to the goals of the study and are categorized in three broad terms that includes (Oppenheim, 2000).
Evaluation (examines the degree of positivity or negativity)
Potency (explores the strength or weakness)
Activity (measures the passiveness and the activity)
4. The process of using a semantic differential test includes using a survey question. The survey questions have different questions for the issue at hand. The questions are paired each by their exact opposite. We then place a value on the scale between +5 and – 5 to indicate the varying attitudes on the answers. Some of the questions asked include:
Is HIV real or false
Does HIV affect the poor or does the HIV affect the rich?
Is there adequate treatment for HIV victims? Or Is the HIV treatment inadequate?
5. The last step includes tabulating the information to include all aspects and a summary of the responses to examine if there is a pattern applications of the semantic differential in the case of HIV
You can apply the semantic differential to rate people’s perspective on HIV> Example:
Would you
Say (HIV) is:
False ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Real
Treatable ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Not treatable
Serious ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ not serious
Threatening ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Not threatening
Dynamic ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Static
References
Mindak, W. A. (1961, April). Fitting the Semantic Differential to the Marketing Problem. Journal of Marketing, Vol. 25, (No. 4), pp. 28-33.
Oppenheim, A. N. (2000). Questionnaire Design, Interviewing and Attitude Measurement. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Osgood, C., & Suci, G. (1957). The Measurement of Meaning [Book]. Retrieved April, 2012, from http://The Measurement of Meaning
