Page 78 - Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States

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INDEXING refers to creating a scale or index of attitudes. This is done by
getting responses to a number of items chosen so that they form a continuum.
We can then place individuals at a specific point on that continuum. A simple
example is asking the individual whether he or she is very liberal, somewhat
liberal, neither liberal nor conservative, somewhat conservative, or very conser-
vative.
More important is the application of this concept to a series of attitude items.
Thus, we might have statements about such issues as abortion, gun control,
welfare, military spending, and school prayer. We would phrase them so that
agreement would mean acceptance of the conservative position. Then the num-
ber of items the respondent agrees with is his or her score, and the score reflects
the extent of conservative belief.
Such indexing assumes that we have a true continuum and that the continuum
is unidimensional. That isn't always tested, and as a result some indexes are not
very valid.
SOURCE: Michael W. Singletary and Gerald Stone, Communication Theory and Re-
search Applications, 1988.
Guido H. Stempel III