Scaled Attitudes of College Freshmen Reflecting Their Competencies in Reading, Mathematics, and Compositional Practice

Abstract

This study tried to identify the attitudes of a beginning freshman class relating to five concepts, my reading ability, my mathematics ability, my ability to write compositions, myself, and Morehead State University. From a pool of 2,132 students, 860 were randomly selected and asked to complete, anonymously, semantic differential ratings with 12 bipolar adjectives. All responses were factor analyzed by the principal components solution. Three factors were rotated to the varimax solution. Scaled feelings of value, power, and activity toward each concept were identified.