Expanding the Assessment of Attitude Components and Structure: The Benefits of Open-ended Measures

In this chapter, we describe open-ended measures for assessing the cognitive, affective, and behavioral components of attitudes, and the use of these measures to assess a variety of properties relating to attitude structure. In describing the utility of these measures to assess both intergroup and more general attitudes, we highlight situations in which open-ended measures may have advantages over closed-ended measures, as well as identifying situations in which closed-ended measures may be preferable. We conclude by suggesting that researchers interested in fully assessing attitudes would do well to include both open-ended and closed-ended measures in pursuit of this endeavor.