Assessing General and Specific Attitudes in Human Learning Behavior

Abstract

This article proposes a multilevel modeling approach to study the general and specific attitudes formed in human learning behavior. Based on the premises of activity theory, it conceptualizes the unit of analysis for attitude measurement as a scalable and evolving activity system rather than a single action. Measurement issues related to this conceptualization, including scale development and validation, are discussed with the help of facet analysis and multilevel structural equation modeling techniques. An empirical study was conducted, and the results indicate that this approach is theoretically and methodologically defensible.