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In the following two sections of this paper, we will give a brief sketch of some models of attitude representation and discuss how these models may serve as theoretical grounds for the design of attitude scales. Afterwards, we will relate these considerations to the case of attitudes toward the computer and describe the construction of an instrument for the content-specific assessment of attitudes toward the computer. The design of this questionnaire is based on assumptions following the topical approach to attitude representation (Tourangeau. 1987. 1992) and the notion of a bipolar structure of attitude representation (Pratkanis. 1989). The third section reports the results of two studies that provide empirical evidence for the diagnostic usefulness of these assumptions. In the final section, some implications for the design of instruments for the assessment of cognition-based attitudes are discussed.
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FROM THEORIES OF ATTITUDE REPRESENTATION TO QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN Johannes Naumann1, a,Tobias Richtera , Norbert Groebena & Ursula Christmannb a University of Cologne, b Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg In this paper, the general implications of three different approaches to attitude representation for questionnaire design in attitude measurement are examined. Especially the theories by Tourangeau and Pratkanis were taken into account for the construction of a questionnaire for the assessment of attitudes toward the computer. We assume that memory representations of computer-related attitudes are structured by means of topicality and that they are structured in a bipolar rather than a unipolar manner. In two studies, the attitude questionnaire constructed on the basis of these assumptions was administered to a German-speaking sample (N=232) and an English-speaking sample (N=251). Psychometric aspects of a topical and bipolar struct