UGC NET Questions (Paper – 1)

The Bogardus social distance scale presents a series of relational situations, such as accepting someone as a close relative, neighbour or citizen, and asks respondents to indicate the closest relation they would accept with members of particular groups. The responses indicate the level of social distance or acceptance. It is widely used to study prejudice and intergroup relations. Hence, the social distance scale described in the stem is known as the Bogardus scale.

Option A:
The Thurstone scale uses a set of statements rated by judges to assign scale values and then asks respondents to indicate agreement; it is not constructed around graded social relationships. Thus, it does not match the type of scale mentioned.

Option B:
The Likert scale measures attitudes using agreement–disagreement responses to statements and sums scores across items; it does not focus specifically on social distance in terms of relational closeness.

Option C:
The Bogardus scale uniquely captures the willingness to accept out-group members in roles of varying intimacy, from close kin to exclusion. This graded relational structure corresponds exactly to the description given, making this option correct.

Option D:
The Guttman scale is a cumulative scale where agreement with a stronger statement implies agreement with weaker ones and may be used in many contexts, but it is not specifically the classic social distance scale referenced here.