Abstract:

For measuring public attitude towards HIV/AIDS patients, the present task was undertaken to construct and standardize an attitude scale. For this, the data were collected from individuals (above 18 years of age) belonging to different professions by adopting the procedure of multi-stage systematic sampling technique. An item pool was developed initially by consulting various sources and theoretical and empirical literature available in the concerned area. This item pool was put to evaluation and criticism by technical as well as language experts. The preliminary draft of attitude scale was further subjected to item analysis to select highly discriminating items only for the scale. The reliability of scale was ascertained with the help of test-retest and split-half method which were found to be appreciably high. The validity of attitude scale was also ascertained and norms were established for interpretation of obtained scores on the scale. In the last, conclusions have been presented and implications in the shape of the applicability and usefulness of attitude scale have been discussed.

Keywords: Construction, Standardization, Public attitude, HIV/AIDS.

[1] Assistant Professor (Education), ICDEOL, H. P. University, Shimla