Overview
AmethodofpsychologicalresearchproposedbytheAmericanpsychologistC.E.Osgoodin1957,alsoknownastheSDmethod.Osgoodandothersbelievethathumanbeingshaveawiderangeofcommonemotionalmeaningsforconceptsorvocabulary,regardlessofculturalandlanguagedifferences.Therefore,itiseffectivetodirectlyaskthemeaningofaconceptfor"intelligentandverbalfluentresearchobjects".
Scalelevel
Thescaleisgenerallydividedinto7levels,suchas:
①"verygood",②"verygood",③"alittlebitGood",④"Notbadornot",⑤"Slightlybad",⑥"Ratherbad",⑦"Verybad".Letthesubjectsputforwardconcepts(suchas"war","peace","life","self","ourschool",etc.)basedonanemotionalevaluation,whichisthemostsuitableamongthese7levelsOneismarkedwith"×".Finally,factoranalysisoftheobtaineddata.AftermanytestsbyOsgoodandotherresearchers,itwasfoundthatthesubjects’responsestoeachconceptmostlyshoweddifferencesinthefollowingthreeaspects:evaluation(good-bad),potential(strong-weak),activity(fast)-slow).Thesethreedimensionsarealsothemostimportantfactorsinthegeneral"semanticspace".Theresultsobtainedbythesemanticdifferencemethodcanbeusedtoanalyzethedatabetweenconcepts,betweenscales,andbetweensubjects,andcanalsoberepresentedinanintuitiveformwithdiagrams.
DisadvantagesoftheSemanticDifferenceMethod
Participantstendtomakeexaggerateddescriptionsoftheiremotionalpreferences,andtendtomark“×”intheneutralsegment,whichwillcauseerrors.However,thismethodisextremelyflexible,easytoconceive,easytouseandeasytoscore.Therefore,althoughthehistoryisrelativelyshort,ithasbeenwidelyusedinthefieldsofpsychology,education,sociology,businessmanagement,marketresearch,publicityresearch,andcross-culturalresearch.