Developing a Semantic Differential Scale for Measuring Users’ Attitudes toward Sensor based Decision Support Technologies for the Environment.

摘要

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and testing of an Emerging Technologies Semantic Differential Scale (ETSDS) designed to measure the attitudes of potential users toward an emerging technology. The strategy consisted of identifying initial items and descriptors that may help to understand respondents’ attitudes about one emerging technology; test bi-polar adjectives to construct the scale; determine representativeness of items on a particular construct domain for content validity; and finally, to test the reliability and construct validity of the instrument. The instrument development process resulted in a reliable and valid parsimonious 10-item scale for quantitatively measuring attitudes toward the deployment of global sensor networks that is easily adaptable to other emerging technologies with similar attributes. The instrument is likely to be useful to both academics and practitioners with interests in attitudes about innovations, technology adoption, and users’ behavioral intention toward emerging technologies. Keywords:Semantic differential scale (SDS), public health, attitudes, emerging technologies, scale development