Experimental Analysis of Attitudes: The Factorial-Survey Approach

摘要

A reading of the studies having been published by important sociological and criminological journals reveals a clear picture: for a variable to be considered dependent in a randomized experimental study (at least for those accepted and published by these journals), it has to be behavioral. The question asked in this article is, may only behavioral measures constitute dependent variables in highly qualified experimental studies? The answer is a distinct “no”, and attitudinal measures are also proposed as possible and legitimate dependent variables in randomized experimental studies. Here the factorial-survey approach, a relatively new survey technique, which combines the benefits of controlled, randomized experimental designs and conventional surveys, is suggested as a characteristic experimental technique in such studies. This article concludes that the factorial-survey approach may be considered an appropriate experimental technique in social science research—it produces findings that less developed methods are not able to examine.