A Comparative Analysis of the Techniques for the Measurement of Attitudes

Magistrsko delo v svojem teoretičnem delu predstavi pojem stališča, osredotoči se na lastnosti stališč, njihov nastanek in oblikovanje ter spreminjanje. Opredeli tudi njihove funkcije in strukturo, predstavi stališču sorodne pojme ter definira odnos med stališči in vedenjem, ki je z vidika marketinga poglavitnega pomena pri preučevanju vedenja porabnikov, saj običajno preučujemo stališča v ta namen prav zaradi možnosti vplivanja na vedenje in napovedovanja vedenja. Nadalje magistrsko delo preuči merjenje stališč z vidika različnih meritvenih tehnik. Natančno predstavi vprašalnik, ki je bil v izvedeni raziskavi uporabljen kot raziskovalni instrument. Posebna pozornost je namenjena različnim meritvenim skalam in posebej meritvenim tehnikam za merjenje stališč. V raziskovalnem delu preuči stališča študentov magistrskega študija na EPF do študijskega programa v katerega so vpisani. Pri tem je pomembno, da je bilo ugotavljanje dejanskih stališč študentov do študijskega programa sekundarnega pomena, služilo je le za izvedbo primerjave med tremi tehnikami za merjenje stališč, ki so bile uporabljene v raziskavi. Te tehnike so: semantični diferencial, Likertova skala in večatributni model idealne točke. Dobljeni rezultati z vsemi tremi tehnikami so bili med seboj primerjani z namenom ugotoviti, ali dajo vse tri tehnike primerljive podatke oz. ali med njimi obstajajo statistično pomembne razlike. Raziskava je pokazala tudi, katere lastnosti študija so študentom najpomembnejše in ali obstajajo razlike med preferencami glede na spol študentov ter kako zahtevno je izpolnjevanje vprašalnika s posamezno tehniko, katera tehnika je anketirancem vzela največ časa in katera se jim je zdela najprimernejša za izvedbo raziskave. Rezultati raziskave so dali zanimive ugotovitve in predloge ter možne rešitve pri izbiri tehnik za merjenje stališč.In its theoretical part this work introduces the concept of attitudes, and focuses on the characteristics of attitudes, their creation and forming. It defines the functions of attitudes and their structure, and introduces related concepts as it defines the relationship between attitudes and behavior. From the marketers point of view this relationship is one of the most important issues in studying consumer behavior, because of the efforts of influencing and predicting customer behavior. Furthermore this work presents measurement of attitudes according to different measurement techniques. It closely introduces the questionnaire, which was used in the study as a research instrument. Special attention is paid to different scales for measurement and especially techniques for attitude measurement. In the research part this work investigates attitudes of master degree students toward the studying program, in which they are enrolled. Here it is important to know, that measuring attitudes of students toward their studies at the Faculty of Economics and Business was of secondary importance, it only served for comparison between the three techniques, which ware used for attitude measurement. The three techniques are: semantic differential, Likert scale and multi-attribute model of ideal point. The obtained results with all three techniques ware compared in order to find out if they are comparable or there is statistical significance between them. The research pointed out which attributes of studying program are for the students most important and if there are any differences in the preferences according to the respondent gender. For all three measurement techniques their pretentiousness, their time extensiveness and their suitability for attitude measurement were investigated. On the basis of obtained results this work presents interesting findings and possible solutions regarding the selection of attitude measurement techniques