MEASUREMENT AND

SCALING TECHNIQUES
 MEASUREMENT IN
RESEARCH
Measuring in research means
assigning numbers to events,
objects.
1) Selecting observable events.
2) Developing a set of mapping rules.
3) Applying the mapping rules to
each observation of that event.
 MAPPING RULES
CLASSIFICATION Numbers are used
to group or sort responses.
ORDER Numbers are ordered, <, >,
=.
DISTANCE Differences between
numbers are ordered.
ORIGIN Number series have a unique
origin indicated by the number zero.
 MEASUREMENT SCALES
On basis of mathematical properties,
classification of measurement scales
are
NOMINAL SCALE
ORDINAL SCALE
INTERVAL SCALE
RATIO SCALE
 NOMINAL SCALE
The lowest measurement level you can use,
from a statistical point of view, is a nominal
scale.
A nominal scale, as the name implies, is
simply some placing of data into categories,
without any order or structure.
In research activities a YES/NO scale is
nominal. It has no order and there is no
distance between YES and NO.
Whatisyourgender?
[]Male[] Female
 ORDINAL SCALE
An ordinal scale is next up the list in terms of
power of measurement. The simplest ordinal
scale is a ranking. When a market researcher
asks you to rank 5 types of beer from most
flavourful to least flavourful, he/she is asking
you to create an ordinal scale of preference.
Eg Rank the following attributes (1 - 5), on their
importance in a microwave oven.
Company Name
Functions
Price
Comfort
Design
 INTERVAL SCALE
The standard survey rating scale is an interval scale.
When you are asked to rate your satisfaction with a piece
of software on a 7 point scale, from Dissatisfied to
Satisfied, you are using an interval scale.
It is an interval scale because it is assumed to have
equidistant points between each of the scale elements.
This means that we can interpret differences in the
distance along the scale. How do you rate your present
refrigerator for the following qualities.
Company Name Less Known 1 2 3 4 5 Well known
Functions Few 1 2 3 4 5 Many
Price Low 1 2 3 4 5 High
Design Poor 1 2 3 4 5 Good
Overall Satisfaction Very Dis-Satisfied 1 2 3 4 5 Very
Satisfied
 RATIO SCALE
A ratio scale is the top level of
measurement and is not often available in
social research.
The factor which clearly defines a ratio
scale is that it has a true zero point.
The simplest example of a ratio scale is the
measurement of length.
Eg- What is your annual income before
taxes? ______
 SOURCES OF ERROR IN
MEASUREMENT
RESPONDENT - Negative feelings,
guess, ignorance, reluctance.
SITUATION - Interviewer- respondent
rapport.
MEASURER - Incorrect coding, faulty
tabulations, reordering questions.
INSTRUMENT - poor printing, response
omissions.
 TESTS OF SOUND
MEASUREMENT
TEST OF VALIDITY
TEST OF RELIABILITY
TEST OF PRACTICABILITY
 TEST OF VALIDITY
Content Validity Extent to which a
measuring instrument provides adequate
coverage of the topic under study.
Criterion- related Validity Relates to the
ability to predict some outcome.
i)Predictive Validity Usefulness of test in
predicting future performance.
ii) Concurrent Validity Usefulness of test in
a closely related measures.
Construct Validity Degree to which scores
on a test can be accounted.
 TEST OF RELIABILITY
Stability By standardizing the
conditions under which measurement
takes place.
Equivalence By carefully designing
directions for measurement with no
variation from group to group.
 TEST OF PRACTICABILITY

Economy Budget , cost

Convenience Easy to administer.
Interpretability - Detailed
instructions for administering the
test, scoring keys, evidence about
reliability, guide for using the tests.
TECHNIQUE OF DEVELOPING
MEASUREMENT TOOLS
Concept Development Understanding of
major concepts pertaining to the study.
Specification of concept dimensions-
Analysing various aspects
Selection of indicators- Measuring specific
questions, scales , opinion, expectation.
Formation of index- Combining the
indicators and sum up the corresponding
scores.
 SCALING
Procedure of assigning numbers to
various degrees of opinion, attitude.
Scaling can be done by
1) Making a judgement about some
characteristics of an individual and
placing him directly on a scale that
has been defined in terms of
characteristic
2) Constructing questionnaire in such
a way that score of individual
responseassigns him a place in scale.
 SCALE CLASSIFICATION
BASES
SUBJECT ORIENTATION
RESPONSE FORM
DEGREE OF SUBJECTIVITY
SCALE PROPERTIES
NUMBER OF DIMENSIONS
SCALE CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES
 SCALE CONSTRUCTION
TECHNIQUES
Arbitrary Approach
Consensus Approach
Item Analysis Approach
Cumulative Scales
Factor Scales
 RATING SCALES
ARBITRARY SCALE
The researcher first collects few
statements or items which he believes
are unambiguous and appropriate to a
given topic.
DIFFERENTIAL / THURSTONE TYPE
SCALE-
Under such an approach the selection of
items is made by a panel of judges who
evaluate the items in terms of whether
they are relevant to the topic area and
unambiguous in implication.
RATING SCALES
 SUMMATED/ LIKERT TYPE SCALES
Summated scales/Likert-type scales
are developed by utilizing the item
analysis approach wherein a
particular item is evaluated on the
basis of how well it discriminates
between those persons whose total
score is high and those whose score
is low.
 CUMULATIVE SCALES
Cumulative scales or Louis Guttmans
scalogram analysis, like other scales,
consist of series of statements to
which a respondent expresses his
agreement or disagreement.
 SCALOGRAM ANALYSIS
Scalogram analysis refers to the procedure for
determining whether a set of items forms a
unidimensional scale.
A scale is said to be unidimensional if the responses
fall into a pattern in which endorsement of the item
reflecting the extreme position results also in
endorsing all items which are less extreme.
Under this technique, the respondents are asked to
indicate in respect of each item whether they agree
or disagree with it, and if these items form a
unidimensional scale, the response pattern will be
as under:
SCALOGRAM ANALYSIS
 FACTOR SCALE
Factor scales are developed through
factor analysis or on the basis of
intercorrelations of items which indicate
that a common factor accounts for the
relationships between items.
Factor scales are particularly useful in
uncovering latent attitude dimensions
and approach scaling through the concept
of multiple-dimension attribute space.
SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL
SCALE
MULTI-DIMENSIONAL SCALE
Multidimensional scaling (or MDS)
can be characterized as a set of
procedures for portraying perceptual
or affective dimensions of
substantive interest.
It provides useful methodology for
portraying subjective judgements of
diverse kinds.
 MDS
MDS is used when all the variables
(whether metric or non-metric) in a
study are to be analyzed
simultaneously and all such variables
happen to be independent.
The underlying assumption in MDS is
that people (respondents) perceive a
set of objects as being more or less
similar to one another on a number of
dimensions (usually uncorrelated with
one another) instead of only one.
 METRIC APPROACH
The metric approach to MDS treats
the input data as interval scale data
and solves applying statistical
methods for the additive constant
which minimises the dimensionality of
the solution space.
This approach utilises all the
information in the data in obtaining a
solution.
 NON-METRIC APPROACH
The non-metric approach first gathers the
non-metric similarities by asking
respondents to rank order all possible
pairs that can be obtained from a set of
objects.
In other words, this non-metric approach
seeks a representation of points in a
space of minimum dimensionality such
that the rank order of the interpoint
distances in the solution space maximally
corresponds to that of the data.
 RANKING SCALES
In ranking scale the participant
directly compares two or more
objects and makes choice among
them.
Frequently the participant is asked to
select one as the best or the most
preferred when there are only two
choice this approach is satisfactory.
Paired-comparison scale
Using the paired-comparison scale,
the participant can express attitude
unambiguously by choosing between
two objects.
 Forced ranking scale
The forced ranking scale lists
attributes that are ranked relative to
each others.
This method is faster than paired
comparison and is usually easier and
more motivating to the participant
 Comparative scale
The comparative scale is ideal for
such comparison if the participants
are familiar with the standards.
Some researcher treat the data
produced by comparative scales as
intervals data since the scoring
reflects an interval between the
standard and what is being
compared.
 Type of scale
Simple category scale the simple category
scale (also called a dichotomous scale) offers two
mutually exclusive response choices. This
response strategy is particularly useful for
demographic questions

Multiple choice, single response when there

are multiple options for the ratter but only one
answer is sought, the multiple-choice single
response scale is appropriate
Multiple choice, multiple response a

variation, the multiple choice, multiple response

scale (also called checklist), allows the ratter to
select one or several alternatives
 Constant-sum
scale(Data-Ratio)
A scale that helps the researcher discover
proportions is the constant-sum scale. With a
constant sum scale, the participant allocate
points to more than one attributes or property
indicate, such that they total a constant sum,
usually 100 or 10

Example:
(1) If you have 100 points to distribute among the

following characteristics of the Hotel. Indicate the

relative importance of each attribute
(2) Food quality + Atmosphere + Service + Price = 100

Graphic rating scale
The graphical rating scale was originally
created to enable researcher to discern fine
different
They are instructed to mark their response
at any point along a continuum.

Usually the score is a measure of length

from either endpoint
Example:
Never
----------------------------------------------Always