Odnos javnosti do znanosti in tehnologije: kakovost merjenja tega odnosa v okviru javnomnenjske ankete (primer raziskave Slovensko javno mnenje)
Public Attidudes towards Science and Technology: Quality of Measurement of these Attitudes in the Frame of Public Opinion Surveys ...

Summary/Abstract: The paper is focused on the quality of measurment of attitudes toward science and technology in frame of public opinion surveys. We are interested in attitudes of “lay public” or “general public” as measured in the Slovene public opinion surveys in 1995 and in 1999. Two measurement scales were tested. They were designed to measure the following two dimensions of attitudes towards science and tehnology: a) perception of scientific and technological development’s impact on everyday life of individuals and b) positive/negative expectations with regard to future technological development. Using principal components analysis the validity and reliability of the scales were analysed. In that way latent dimensions behind the scales and consistency of the scales were discovered. On the interpretative level, content validity of the scales was also tested. Results are as follows: a) the scales assure sufficent level of reliability; b) the scales have fulfilled expectations regarding their validity - they measure several dimensions of attitudes towards science and technology and c) in line with our theoretical expectations, scales reveal multi-layered and controversal attitudes of “lay individuals” towards issues of scientific and technological development.

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