CONSTRUCTION OF SOME JUDGMENT SPACES
Authors: Boldt Robert F. 
Published: August 2014

Critical factors in the differing reactions of observers toward known persons, and thus important ones for interpersonal relations, are the preconceptions which observers bring to particular social situations. Because of inherent difficulties in communicating through language the organization of these preconceptions, use of dimensional judgment models for studying these preconceptions is proposed. These dimensional models require estimation on an interval scale of interstimulus distances (relative interpoint distances). Measurement of relative interpoint distances may be achieved using judgments of relative similarity of stimulus pairs.

Multidimensional scaling studies of a variety of stimulus types have been conducted in the past. In none of these have the assumptions required been tested in applications where known persons are the stimuli. Hence, the general objective of the present experiment is the application of two multidimensional scaling methods to construction of judgment spaces where the points are known persons, and that testing of the assumptions required may be accomplished. To this end specific objectives of the present study are:

to determine whether the Complete Method of Triads and the Method of Successive Intervals yield similar results in terms of interpoint distance differences;

to determine whether in terms of relative interpoint distances judgments of similarity with respect to a general trait yield results similar to those when judgments of similarity are made with respect to a domain defined by specific instances of relevant behavior;

to determine whether the body of assumption agrees with observed data in terms of goodness of fit; and

to determine the dimensionality of the space, observing whether coordinates on the respective dimensions relate to peer nominations of the trait judged.

To accomplish these specific objectives two experiments were conducted. In the first of these, 86 first classmen (seniors) from the United States Coast Guard Academy provided judgments of similarity with respect to Adaptability using the Complete Method of Triads and the Method of Successive Intervals. In addition, Successive Intervals judgments of similarity with respect to a behavioral domain defined by a list of specific behaviors (all behaviors were, in the experience of the Cadets, related to the concept of Adaptability) were obtained. Finally, peer nominations of “most adaptable” and “least adaptable,” gathered several weeks prior to the conduct of the scaling experiment, were obtained.

In the second experiment, two groups of Naval Aviation Cadets provided judgments of similarity with respect to Leadership. There were 20 judges in one group and 21 judges in the other. The Cadets had known each other for about fourteen weeks.

In terms of the specific objectives, the results of the studies conducted were that:

interpoint distance differences obtained by the Complete Method of Triads and the Method of Successive Intervals correlated .88, indicating that the underlying spaces are essentially the same;

relative interpoint distances obtained using the general term “adaptability” and those obtained using a specific set of behaviors to define the trait domain correlated .93, indicating that the underlying spaces are essentially the same;

theoretical proportions, computed using parameters obtained through the scaling, have a good approximation to the observed proportions; and

the dimensionality of the obtained spaces was three—one with large variation and the other two with less variation than the large one but about equal to each other. The first dimension in the Adaptability space correlated −.92 with peer nominations of adaptability while the other two dimensions were essentially unrelated to the peer nominations.

These results supported acceptance of the dimensional model, together with the scaling techniques. It is not felt, however, that the adaptability concept was resolved into component parts. Implications of these results are discussed.