On the ambivalence-indifference problem in attitude theory and measurement: A suggested modification of the semantic differential technique.

This article explores the alternate meanings of attitudinal neutrality in the context of the bipolarity-reciprocal antagonism issue. Specifically, it proposes a modification of the semantic differential technique wherein the liking and disliking components of can be separately measured. A geometrical model is developed in which three nondirectional variables (total affect, ambivalence, and polarization) are distinguished from the usual variable. Reliability and validity data are presented, and an application of the model is discussed. In his 1935 review of the general area of theory and research, Gordon Allport concluded that most investigators basically agreed that attitude is a learned predisposition to respond to an object in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner [p. 818J. Furthermore, he suggested that this bipolarity in the direction of an (i.e., the favorable versus unfavorable) was viewed as its most distinctive feature. Thus, he felt that had been conceptualized as a simple unidimensional concept—the evaluative (or affec