Basic issues in measuring gender attitudes

1. Basic issues in measuring gender attitudes Ko Oudhof Statistics Netherlands

2. What will I tell you? • Just for a start: your own contribution • Subjective indicators • What are attitudes • Measurement issues • Analytic issues • Here and there: gender/ international comparability

3. Before I tell you anything • Think of one short statement on the role of women or men in decision making that according to yourself would make it possible to distinguish respondents into advocates and opponents of gender equality by looking at their (dis)agreement with your statement

4. Indicator Cognitive Evaluative Affective Item Scale One digit, evaluating, goal-related About seeing, knowing and thinking About good or bad About like or dislike Statement or question List of items Introductory vocabulary

5. Policy and role of indicators • Selection policy goals • Assessing policy process • Evaluate policy results

6. Subjective indicators and policy-1 • Selection policy goals • what do people (not) want? (Worries, aspirations, satisfactions) • what do people need or get rid off? (immaterial needs, happiness) • Assessing policy process • Public support (trust, support) • Assess course of policy (predictions, prognosis) • Evaluate policy results • Goal attainment (health, inequality, perceived safety, xenophobia)

7. Subjective indicators and policy-2 • No ‘objective’ observation? • Subjective condition real policy objective • Direct measurement • Both subjective and objective indicators depart from implicit assumptions on each other in some implicit psychological model on behavior! • Vague? Limits to aggregation! • Measuring all possible wrongs? • Indicators with a large mandate needed • Statistical weaknesses • No money and no counting • Monetary value or size of subjective condition? • Specific measure and methodology • Experts needed

8. Subjective indicators • Policy-relevance (issues) • Need- or Behavior-related (predictability) • Variability (daily fluctuations versus almost invariable states) • Now – indicators • In these times – indicators • Long term perspective - indicators

9. Needs and wants Emotions Perception Experience Learning Motives Goals Etc. Fysical environment Social environment Subjective conditions and the world Now -response Structured stable behavior? Now - feedback

10. Attitudes (common elements in most definitions) • Oriented on object, person, institution or event • Evaluative component • Cognitive component • Affective component • Stable condition or construct • Intermediary between object stimulus and behavioural response: consistency

11. Relatives with likeness • Opinions (now) • stability less • more cognitive and not always evaluative • behavioral relation weaker • Values (long term) • general and less object-oriented • stability higher • behavioral relation more indirect • Norms (derivative) • prescription of behavior • stability higher • behavioral relation stronger and more direct • less cognitive and less affective

12. Relation subjective elements Abstraction value attitude opinion Time

13. Model Theory Planned Behaviour (Ajzen)

14. General Model (Van der Pligt & De Vries)

15. Relation attitude – behavior ( reasoned action approach in 2004) Ajzen & Fishbein, 2004

16. Attitudes and gender policy • Hardly any NSI • Why gender attitudes? • Attitude change as objective? • Defensive in discussion? • Same question elsewhere? • Macro-economy: confidence consumers/producers • Business world: marketing • Politics : voting behavior • Health: perceived health • Crime: feeling of insecurity

17. Gender attitude research and tools in practice • Mainly academic or ad hoc research • Few international research projects • Gender role (labor market or household) main topic • Hardly any standardisation • Example: attitudes on female decision making • Support preferential policies • Attitudes among decision makers • Acceptance of female management • Effects of leadership styles

18. Objects Explaining behavior Measurement tools Analysis Interpretation Presentation Gender Issues Engendered concepts Gender validity By sex or more*? By sex or more*? By sex or more*? Engendering attitudes More = differences compared to other non-gendered research as consequence of earlier steps

19. Measurement of attitudes • Explicit measurement (under consciouscontrol respondent) • one item • multi-item • Implicit measurement (without conscious control respondent) • observation of behavior (non-obtrusive) • bodily response • response latency  Academic research and less relevant for statistical offices etc.

20. Quality of measurement - reliability • equal outcomes of tool when measuring the same? • random error • inter-items reliability • test-retest / split-half • interobserver reliability • quality measure versus external factors

21. Quality of measurement - validity • Similar results from other tools when measuring the same • Systematic error • Construct validity • convergent validity – what should • divergent validity - not what should not • Predictive validity • Multitrait-multimethod matrix as solid validity-testing design

22. Survey? • Insight in own attitude/opinion • Can they express the attitudes/opnions: • personal conditions (e.g. ability) • situational conditions (e.g. individual interview?) • Plausibility true answering • personal conditions (e.g. strategic response) • situational conditions (e.g. interviewer interaction) • Alternative informants/ assessing documents • General considerations on survey design

23. Quick  Cheap all or nothing, also in time-series one-dimensional sometimes quite high and reliable how do you assess psychometric properties Response time  Expensive Shortening scale generally possible Multidimensional Scale properties can be assessed International comparability and standardisation of scales (or subscales) Single item or multi-item measurement?

24. Osgood scale Thurstone scale Likert scale Guttman scaling multi-object measuring monetary methods (WTP) General dimensions Pretested dichotomous scaled items Addition of multi-point (3-100) items Scaled statements Conjunct / dominance/ similarity Simulated markets/ hedonic price analysis/ contingent valuation (CV) or ranking (CR) Multi-item variants

25. Likert scale • Rather simple • List of items expressing positive and negative opinions on attitude object • Selection of relevant items by content • Choice of answering categories • Number • meaning of scores • middle category • don’t know: yes or no • Scale rating by summing item values (after recoding) • Self-made or standard?

26. Selection of items • Relevant for all groups (e.g. young + old) • Clear and unequivocal interpretation • No multiple question items • No double negations • No questions but statements (response set) • No confirmation bias  pos + neg • Time spans: now/these days/whole life • Suggestive expression (most people…) • Biased or suggestive answering categories • Personalised or public statements (Hakim)

27. More possible interferences • Character of survey (crime or labour?) • Interviewer • Order of topics in questionnaire • Introduction of scale • Interference of different topics in one scale • Order of items • No repeats or redundancy • Social desirability  overreporting or underreporting

28. So you’ve got your data • Assessing or reassessing quality of scale? • Reliability aspects • Validity aspects • Deciding what to do considering • Objectives (employer/ supervisor) • Tools (standards?) • Methodological explanations • Explanation of results

29. Item and scale analysis • Assessing reliability of scale as given • Depending on design • Without any validity analysis of scale • (re)assessing items + scale(s) • linearity and other assumptions? • multidimensional? • dropping items possible? • selection of techniques to assess scale • Consistency/ homogeneity items • Analysis content via Princ.Comp./ factoran./ scaling

30. Scale ratings • Which ratings should be used? • sum • weighted sum (only part of items needed?) • factor scores • To be used for what? • is level relevant? (breakdowns or time series) • is level confusing? (comparability) • nature of audience (general public or scientists)

31. Gender & international • Which issue or topic? • Which concept? • Which measurement tool? • Main problem for both: validity • reduction or prevention of systematic error • Analysis: extra = validity analysis • Interpretation = plus restraint by validity • Presentation = including reserves by limited validity?

32. More to learn • In hand-out suggestions for further reading • Standard handbooks for students social psychology • Look on the internet by using searching machines: attitude, gender, survey (e.g. Ajzen) • Search for sites on international surveys (e.g. European Social Survey) and research databases

33. Evaluating both scales • Gender dimension • Inter-item consistency? Homogeneity? • Valid multidimensionality? • Quality of separate items? • Scale quality • Etc.