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Expectancy‐value models of attitudes: A note on the relationship between theory and methodology
Author(s) -
Sparks Paul,
Hedderley Duncan,
Shepherd Richard
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/ejsp.2420210308
Subject(s) - expectancy theory , psychology , value (mathematics) , social psychology , theory of reasoned action , multiplicative function , empirical research , action (physics) , epistemology , statistics , mathematics , mathematical analysis , physics , quantum mechanics , philosophy
Concern has been expressed in the literature regarding the method of scoring ‘beliefs’ within expectancy‐value models of attitudes. This paper reviews the major issues and focuses upon some hitherto largely neglected problems with scoring methods. Empirical findings from a series of studies concerned with ‘the theory of reasoned action’ are examined: with a multiplicative Combination of beliefs and evaluations, it is found that bipolar scoring of belief items leads to higher correlations of the summed products of beliefs and evaluations with attitudes than are achieved with unipolar scoring. These findings contrast markedly with recently reported research and indicate the important role played by contextual factors (such as belief content and the response scales presented to subjects). It is concluded that more attention needs to be paid to the relationship between conceptual and methodological issues.