Persuasion, Communication, Scales, Etc.

This blog in intended for the course I’m taking titled Persuasion, or COMM 333. Our class was assigned to analyze and discuss two attitude scales addressed in Module 3. The two attitude scales I will be analyzing are the Likert Scale and the Semantic Differential Scale. The Likert Scale “consists of a series of statements about some attitude object, followed by a continuum of choices ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”’ (Gass & Seiter, 2016). The Semantic Differential Scale is “based on connotative meanings words have for people” (Gass & Seiter, 2016). Unlike the Visually Oriented Self- Report, both of these scales measure an opinion a person has based on their ethics or beliefs, in the way they are used to being treated or feel like they’re expected to be treated, rather than a feeling in their body. They also use words to measure these opinions instead of pictures. The benefit of the Likert and Semantic Differential Scales measuring attitudes is to analyze how a subject feels about a particular problem or concern or idea. The Likert Scale, sometimes intended for academic use, measures a student perception of how a specific professor teaches a particular class, or how a student believes they should be teaching. A Likert Scale is also used for businesses, and it is intended for customers to assess their experience dining in that particular restaurant. The Semantic Differential Scale is often a lot more accurate in analyzing data because, instead of choosing from five different options, a subject would only be choosing from two. These two options would be opposite pairs like agree and disagree or negative and positive. It is also a more direct scale for analyzing how a person might feel about a particular product or commercial a company is using as part of a Marketing tactic. A Likert scale wouldn’t be as direct because a subject has more options to choose from that scale, but it’s use would remain the same. One concern I personally have for the Likert scale is that it takes me longer, even if it might be easier for other people to fill out. Because of the bigger range of options, I tend to overthink my response. Also, when I don’t know if I would be interested or not, I choose the middle option, and I don’t know how beneficial that would be for a government worker, business owner, or professor. For the Semantic Differential Scale, my only concern is that, if I’ve never experienced what I’m being measured by, or have no opinion for what I’m being measured by, then there is no middle option. I’m forced to choose one option or the other, and if I don’t know what to choose, then that takes more time for me to fill out a survey then I wish to spend. The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) “presumes that intentions are the best guide to behavior”, but “intentions don’t always predict behavior” (Gass & Seiter, 2016). I believe that both of these scales reflect this model, because opinions and motives often change throughout time. Someone could say they agree that they are vegan or believe that a business is doing very well one day, but then they can change their mind a day later. However, what they wrote on a survey or circled becomes a permanent intention or motive for the receiver to either act, or not act, on changed behavior. They subject could also not have an clear intention of what their opinion is, and circle somewhere in the middle on the Likert scale. Then, months later, if they took the same survey again, they might have a different response. The Elaboration Likelihood model (ELM) is described as the peripheral and central route representing two ends of a continuum. “At one end of the continuum, a person engages in no or low elaboration”, and “at the other end, a person engages in high elaboration” (Gass & Seiter, 2016). In other words, when applying the models, someone might pick a response over the other out of popularity or pressure from a friend, rather than thinking through whether their answer coincides with their own personality or personal beliefs. What I have mainly learned from this assignment is that there is not one right or wrong way to fill out a survey or a scale. Everyone is persuaded differently, and everyone communicates how they feel about a certain business, professor, or topic in a different way. Most of the time I only think about how I am persuaded, and this section of this course definitely opened my mind to how I can persuade different groups of people. In the future, when I view scales on surveys, I probably will fill them out faster now that I know what the intention for them is. Gass, R. H., & Seiter, J. S. (2016). Persuasion: Social influence and compliance gaining. (5th ed). New York, NY: Routledge.