Scales measuring surface attitudes can expose their underlying psychosocial roots.

Evidence

Sanford was then Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of California in Berkeley, and a research associate at the Institute of Child Welfare there. He had published articles on the typology of criminals and on the formulation of scales according to which war optimism or national defence morale might be measured, at the same time allowing conclusions to be drawn regarding the psychosocial roots of the attitudes examined. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 383

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: how wartime morale-measurement psychometrics on the Berkeley campus became the methodological engine of the Authoritarian Personality’s F-scale.
• XREF: connects to: Researchers can quantify belief in historical events with survey scales.; The F-scale measured how deeply ethnocentric attitudes were rooted in personality structure. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1769; A shared psychological trait connects RWA Scale items despite diverse content — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 691
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Researchers can quantify belief in historical events with survey scales.; The F-scale measured how deeply ethnocentric attitudes were rooted in personality structure. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1769; A shared psychological trait connects RWA Scale items despite diverse content — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 691