A Factor Analytic Study of Attitudes toward Motion Pictures

Summary

The study reported here had college students (n = 170) respond to a modified version of Thurstone's 40-item movie attitude scale. Thurstone had developed his scale as a part of the Payne Fund studies (1933), in which he played a significant role. The purpose of the present study was to locate and identify underlying attitudinal dimensions in Thurstone's scale. Responses to the instrument were subjected to factor analysis which revealed nine factors accounting for 60% of the variance. Results of the factor analysis suggest that the scale taps attitudinal dimensions toward movies regarding their educational value, potential for social injury, content, and value as a leisure time pursuit, but omits other important aspects of attitude measurement as related to motion pictures.