ATTITUDE MESUREMENT AND SCALING

 Measurement can be defined as a process of associating

numbers to observations obtained in a research study.

 The numbering is done based on a certain rule.

 The variables associated with a study are classified into

two basic categories:
a) Quantitative/ Numeric
b) Qualitative / Categorical
Incidentally, only quantitative variables can be measured
with the help of standard counting devices and qualitative
variables can only be observed , there is no standard device
or instrument to measure them.
For example, in case of human beings, there are certain
Quantitative( physical) characteristics like height,
weight etc and there are certain qualitative ( abstract)
characteristics like beauty, attitude, creativity etc.
Like human beings, a business organization has also some
Physical characteristics like employees, sales, offices
etc. Being physical in nature these are easily measurable.

However, there are certain abstract characteristics like

reputation of the employees, image of the
entity, motivation, work culture, commitment,
trust, customer’s perception, feelings of customers.
All these are extremely important because they help the
company to stay afloat and grow.
 Therefore characteristics have to be measured for their
meaningful assessment .This can be done by assigning
some numbers and forming scales.
Classification or Types of Measurement Scales

 All measurement scales can be classified into the

following four categories:
(i) Nominal
(ii) Ordinal
(iii) Interval
(iv) Ratio
Properties of Scales
 Distinctive classification
 Order
 Equal distance
 Fixed origin
Types of Scales
1. Nominal Scale : This is the lowest level of
measurement.

This scale is used to divide the population into various

subgroups/categories or classes. The numbers are
assigned for the purpose of identification of the
groups.
It is termed as ‘nominal’, as though one may represent
the categories using numbers , the numbers are just for
namesake, they do not carry any value or order or
meaning.
Any object which is assigned a higher number is in no
way superior to the one which is assigned a lower
number.
Examples of Nominal Scale
Ex.1. What is your religion?
(a) Hinduism
(b) Sikhism
(c) Christianity
(d) Islam
(e) Any other (please specify)

The respondents are divided into mutually exclusive and collectively

exhaustive categories.
Example 2
Are you married?
(a) Yes
(b) No
 Married person may be assigned a no. 1.
 Unmarried person may be assigned a no. 2.

Ex 3. In which of the following departments do

you work?
(a) Marketing
(b) HR
(c) Information Technology
(d) Operations
(e) Finance and Accounting
(f) Any other ( Please Specify)
Example 4: If we put up a question like
‘which type of vehicle is used for going to
office ?
The answer could be bus, car, motor
cycle, auto etc. Numerical value can be
assigned to classify these categories like
1,2, 3, 4.
 More Examples:
Gender classifies the individuals into distinctive
groups, males and females or others.
The individuals may also be classified on the
basis of their Occupation, like student, salaried,
Businessman/enterpreneur etc.
Similarly, the qualification of an individual could be
used to classify individuals into various categories
such as undergraduate, postgraduate, professional etc.
Similarly, nominal scales are used for identifying
food habits ( vegetarian or non-vegetarian) .
Nominal data is qualitative or descriptive Data.
Nominal data are numerical data for namesake
only, because they do not share any properties of
the numbers we deal in ordinary mathematics.
For instance assigned numbers cannot be added,
subtracted, multiplied or divided. The only
arithmetic operations that can be carried out are
the count of each category. Therefore, a frequency
distribution table can be prepared for the nominal
scale variables and mode of the distribution can be
worked out.
 2. Ordinal Scale
This is the next higher level of
measurement than the nominal scale
measurement.
A qualitative scale with order is called an ordinal scale. This
scale possesses first two of the four properties of the scale
The ordinal scale places events in order.
An ordinal scale measurement tells whether an object has
more or less of characteristics than some other objects.
However, it cannot answer how much more or how much
less.
Suppose in a class of students , Shashi scores the highest
marks in marketing (80) and is ranked no.1 ;Mohan scores
the second highest marks (75 )and is ranked no.2. Krishna
scores the third highest marks (72)and is ranked no.3.
Incidentally, it may be noted that the difference in the ranks
does not have any meaningful interpretation in the sense
that the performance of the 1st ranker and 2nd ranker is not
the same as the 2nd ranker and 3rd ranker.
Thus, one can only conclude that 1st ranker has
performed better than 2nd ranker and 2nd ranker
better than 3rd ranker
Example:
Rank the following attributes while choosing a restaurant
for dinner. The most important attribute may be ranked
one, the next important may be assigned a rank of 2 and so
on.
Attribute Rank

Food quality
Prices
Menu variety
Ambience
Service
Statistical Analysis for Ordinal scale
data
 Median
 Rank correlation coefficient
 Sign test
3. Interval Scale
It is the next higher level of measurement.
In the interval scale the difference of the score on the
scale has meaningful interpretation.

Q. How likely are you to buy a new designer carpet in

the next 6 months?
Very Unlikely Neutral Likely Very likely
Unlikely
Scale A 1 2 3 4 5
Scale B 0 1 2 3 4
Scale C -2 -1 0 1 2
 Suppose a respondent ticks the response
category ‘likely’ and another respondent
ticks the category ‘unlikely’. If we use any of
the scales A, B or C we note that the
difference between the scores in each case
is 2. Whereas ,when the ratio of the scores
is taken, it is 2, 3 and -1 for the scales A, B
or C respectively. Therefore, the ratio of
the scores does not have a meaningful
interpretation.
Examples of Interval Scale
 How likely are you to buy a new car
within the next six months?
Definitely Probably Neutral Probably Definitely
will buy will buy will not will not
buy buy

1 2 3 4 5
 How important is price to you while
buying a car?

Least unimportant Neutral Important Most

Important Important
1 2 3 4 5
 Rate the battery of your Smartphone/laptop

Low High

1 2 3 4 5
 Indicate the degree of satisfaction with
the overall performance of your car.

Very Very
dissatisfied satisfied
1 2 3 4 5
 How do you rate the work environment
of your organization?
Very good Good Neither Bad Very bad
good or
bad
5 4 3 2 1
The numbers on this scale can be added,
subtracted, multiplied or divided. One can
compute arithmetic mean, standard
deviation, correlation coefficient and
conduct a t-test, Z-test, regression analysis
and factor analysis.
4. Ratio Scale
This is the highest level of measurement and takes care of
the limitations of the interval scale measurement .

For example, Example:

How many chemist shops are there in your locality?
How many students are there in the MBA programme at
IIFT?

All mathematical and statistical operations can be carried

out using the ratio scale data.
 SLIDE 28

Classification of Scales

Single item vs. multiple item scale:

 In the single item scale, there is only one item to measure

a given construct.

 In multiple item scale, there are many items that play a

role in forming the underlying construct that the
researcher is trying to measure. This is because each of
the item forms some part of the construct which the
researcher is trying to measure.
Example of Single Item Scale
 How satisfied are you with your current job?
1. Very Dissatisfied
2. Dissatisfied
3. Neutral
4. Satisfied
5. Very satisfied
Example of Multiple Item Scale
 How satisfied are you with the pay you
are getting on your current job?
1. Very Dissatisfied
2. Dissatisfied
3. Neutral
4. Satisfied
5. Very satisfied
 How satisfied are you with the rules and
regulations of your organization?
1. Very Dissatisfied
2. Dissatisfied
3. Neutral
4. Satisfied
5. Very satisfied
 How satisfied are you with the job
security in your current job?
1. Very Dissatisfied
2. Dissatisfied
3. Neutral
4. Satisfied
5. Very satisfied
Graphic Rating Scale –

Please indicate how much do you like fast

food by pointing to the face that best shows
your attitude and taste. If you do not prefer
it at all, you would point to face one. In case
you prefer it the most, you would point to
face seven.
Likert Scale
This is agree-disagree five-point scale. The respondents are
given a certain number of items( statements)on which they
are asked to express their degree of agreement
or disagreement.

This is also called a summated scale because the scores on

individual items can be added together to produce a total
score for the respondent.
 Image of a Company
No. Statement Strongly disagree Neither agree Stronglyagree
disagree agree nor
disagree

1 The company makes √

quality products
2 It is a leader in √
technology
3 It does not care √
about the general
public
4 The company leads √
in R & D to
improve products
5 The company is not √
a good paymaster
6 The company has √
not done anything to
Semantic Differential Scale

 This scale is widely used to compare the images of

competing brands, companies or services.
 Here the respondent is required to rate each attitude
or object on a number of five-or seven-point rating
scales.
 This scale is bounded at each end by bipolar
adjectives or phrases.
 The difference between Likert and Semantic
differential scale is that in Likert scale, a number of
statements (items) are presented to the respondents
to express their degree of agreement/disagreement.
However, in the semantic differential scale, bipolar
adjectives or phrases are used.
Example of Semantic Differential Scale
Example of Semantic Differential Scale: (Pictorial
Profile)
 SLIDE 39

Measurement Error
This occurs when the observed measurement on a construct or
concept deviates from its true values.

Reasons
 Mood, fatigue and health of the respondent
 Variations in the environment in which measurements are
taken
 A respondent may not understand the question being asked
and the interviewer may have to rephrase the same. While
rephrasing the question the interviewer’s bias may get into the
responses.
 Some of the questions in the questionnaire may be ambiguous
errors may be committed at the time of coding, entering of
data from questionnaire to the spreadsheet
 SLIDE 40
Criteria for good
measurement
Reliability
Reliability is concerned with consistency, accuracy and
predictability of the scale.

Methods to measures Reliability

Test–retest reliability :In this method repeated measurement
of the same person or group using the same scale under
similar conditions are taken.
Validity

The validity of a scale refers to the question

whether we are measuring what we want to
measure.

The validity of a scale is a more serious issue than

reliability .

Content Validity