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Chapter 13: Measurement
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Learning Outcomes
After studying this chapter, you should beable to
• Determine what needs to be measured to
address a research uestion or hypothesis• Distinguish le!els of
scale measurement
• "now how to form an inde# or compositemeasure
• List the three criteria for good measurement• $erform a basic
assessment of scale
reliability and !alidity
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%ntroduction
• &efore the measurement process canbe de'ned, will ha!e to
decide e#actlywhat needs to be done( )e will use*
– +he decision statement
– Corresponding research uestions and
– esearch hypotheses
• +hen decide what concepts need to bemeasured in a gi!en
pro-ect(
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Measurement
• $rocess of describing some property of aphenomenon of
interest, usually byassigning numbers in a reliable and
!alidway(
• esearcher must ha!e a rule for assigninga number to an
obser!ation in a way thatpro!ides an accurate description( –
+he way instructors assign students. grades(
– /ome scales may better distinguish students(
• All measurement, particularly in the socialsciences, contains
error(
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Measurement
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Concept
• $roblem de'nition process should suggestthe concepts that must
be measured(
• Concept is a generali0ed idea about a classof ob-ects,
attributes, occurrences, orprocesses(
– Concrete concepts for e#ample* age,education present few
problems in eitherde'nition or measurement(
– Abstract concepts lie loyalty, customersatisfaction are
more di2cult to both de'neand measure
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Operational De'nitions
• esearchers measure concepts through a processnown as
Operationalization.
– /peci'es what the researcher must do to measure
theconcept under in!estigation(
• or e#ample, customer satisfaction refers to the minimumnumber
of product returns(
– %dentifying scales that correspond to !ariance in
theconcept(
• /cales* a de!ice pro!iding a range of !alues thatcorrespond to
di4erent !alues in a concept being
measured( – /cales pro!ide correspondence rules that
indicate some true
!alue of a concept(
• Construct used to refer to concepts measured with
multiple !ariables(
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Media /epticism: ConceptualDe'nition
• Media septicism * +he degree to whichindi!iduals are septical
toward thereality presented in the mass media(
Media septicism !aries acrossindi!iduals, from those who are
mildlyseptical and accept most of what theysee and hear in the
media to those who
completely discount and disbelie!e thefacts, !alues, and
portrayal of reality inthe media(
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Media /epticism: OperationalDe'nition
• $lease tell me how true eachstatement is about the media( %s
it!ery true, not !ery true, or not at all
true51( +he program was not !ery accurate in its
portrayal of the problem(
6( Most of the story was staged forentertainment purposes(
3( +he presentation was biased and unfair(
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7ominal /cale
•
epresent the most elementary le!el ofmeasurement(
• ;alues are assigned to an ob-ect for identi'cation
orclassi'cation purposes only(
• +he !alue can be, but does not ha!e to be, a
number(• &usiness researchers use nominal scales uite
often( – /uppose &e#imco $harmaceuticals was
e#perimenting
with for the pediatric syrup( +he researchers would lie the
e#periment to be blind,so when sub-ects are ased to taste one of
the three,the syrups are labeled A, &, or C, not cane sugar,
cornsyrup, or fruit e#tract(
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7ominal /cale
• 7ominal scaling is arbitrary meaningeach label can be assigned
to any ofthe categories without introducing
error( – Athletes wear nominal numbers on
their -erseys(
•
%n sum, nominal scale propertiesmean the numbering system
simplyidenti'es things(
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Ordinal /cales
• aning scales allowing things to bearranged based on how much
ofsome concept they possess(
–
esearch participants often are ased toran things based on
preference(
– /o, preference is the concept, and theordinal scale
lists the options from most
to least preferred, or !ice !ersa(
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%nter!al /cale
• /cales that ha!e both nominal andordinal properties,
• Also capture information about
di4erences in uantities of a conceptfrom one obser!ation to the
ne#t(
– A sales manager now that a particularsalesperson
outperformed a colleague, but
the manager would now by how much(
– Consumer $rice %nde# =&ase 1
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atio /cale
•
epresent the highest form of measurement• ?a!e all the
properties of inter!al scales
with the additional attribute of absoluteuantities(
• %nter!al scales possess only relati!emeaning, whereas ratio
scales representabsolute meaning(
•
An absolute 0ero is the de'ningcharacteristic di4erentiating
between ratioand inter!al scales(
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Mathematical and /tatistical Analysisof /cales
•
Discrete measures are those that tae on onlyone of a 'nite
number of !alues( – Common discrete scales include any
yes*or*no
response that can be coded 1 9 6(
• 7ominal and ordinal scales are discretemeasures(
• +he central tendency of discrete measures isbest
captured by the mode(
• Continuous measures are those assigning!alues anywhere along
some scale range(
• Corresponds to the intensity of some concept(
• atio measures are continuous measures(
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%nde# Measures
•
Multi*item instruments for measuring aconstruct are called inde#
measures, orcomposite measures(
• %nde# measure: Assigns a !alue based on howmuch of the concept
being measured is
associated with an obser!ation(• %nde#es often are formed by
putting se!eral
!ariables together( – or e#ample, a social class inde#
might be based
on three weighted !ariables: occupation,education, and area of
residence(
– +he American Consumer /atisfaction %nde# showshow
satis'ed American consumers are based onan inde# of satisfaction
scores(
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%nde# Measures
•
Composite measures: Assigns a!alue based on a
mathematicalderi!ation of multiple !ariables( – or e#ample,
salesperson satisfaction
may be measured by combininguestions such as @?ow satis'ed are
youwith your -ob, prospect, security etc(5
• or most practical applications,composite measures and inde#es
arecomputed in the same way(
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+hree Criteria for ood Measurement
eliability:
• An indicator of a measure.s internalconsistency(
•
Consistency is the ey tounderstanding reliability(
– A measure is reliable when di4erentattempts at measuring
something
con!erge on the same result( – +est conducted by
&8+ for @ly ash free
CementB(
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eliability
•
+est*retest method: Administeringthe same scale or measure
to thesame respondents at two separatepoints in time to test for
stability(
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;alidity
• +he accuracy of a measure or the e#tent to
which a score truthfully represents a concept( – A dri!er
is cloced at 3 mph in a mph 0one,
but the same radar gun aimed at a houseregisters 6 mph(
• stablishing !alidity: +here are four basic
approaches to establishing !alidity* – Face validity:
A scale logically reEects the
concept being measured( – Content validity: +he
degree that a measure
co!ers the domain of interest
– Criterion validity: +he ability of a measure
tocorrelate with other standard measures of similarcriteria(
– Construct validity: Consists of se!eralcomponents
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eliability !s( ;alidity
•
eliability is a necessary but notsu2cient condition for
!alidity( Areliable scale may not be !alid(
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/ensiti!ity
•
An instrument.s ability to accuratelymeasure !ariability in a
concept(
– %nstead of using @agree or disagreeB, in ascale use of
@strongly agree,B @mildly
agree,B @neither agree nor disagree,B@mildly disagree,B and
@strongly disagreeBwill increase the scale.s sensiti!ity(
•
/ensiti!ity is generally increased byadding more response points
or addingscale items(
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nd
