A projective technique for measuring positive and negative attitudes towards people in a real-life situation

Abstract

A projective technique which yields a measure of an individual's frame of reference in terms of positive versus negative attitudes is based upon his written report of a real-life situation. Asked to report on one-hour observations of people in a department store, 220 students prepared written reports. Statements were classified as relatively objective, subjective or imputing feeling to the person observed. The essential classification, was based on whether a positive or negative attitude was indicated. Quantitative scores range from -11.0 to +4.3 with a median of 1.45. Formal validation is still to be carried out, but salient cases seem to corroborate the projective quality of the technique. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1952 American Psychological Association.