Measuring the Attitudes of Prisoners by the Semantic Differential

Selection of semantic differential scales by reference to the table of factor loadings of Osgood et al . (1957) may be of doubtful validity if concept‐scale interactions produce wide variations in factor structure between concepts. In order to investigate this problem with respect to the measurement of prisoners' attitudes, factor analyses were carried out for each of 12 concepts and for the concepts as a whole. The overall analysis yielded a cognitive‐evaluative factor, an affective‐evaluative factor and a third factor in which the two activity scales featured strongly. That the first two factors appeared in many of the individual concept analyses was interpreted as providing some justification for the use of the overall analysis as a basis for the selection of scales. However, in order to construct the most sensitive measures of attitudes to particular concepts, selection of scales from the individual concept analyses here reported is recommended.