Measurement & Scaling

RAHUL BABAR

Content

• Measurement• Scaling• Scaling characteristics• Primary Scales of Measurement• Attitude measurement Scales

Measurement

It is defined as a process of associating numbers or symbols to observations obtained in a

research study.

Measurement means assigning numbers or other symbols to characteristics of objects

according to certain prespecified rules

Scaling

The generation of a continuum upon which measured objects are located.

Scale Characteristics

Description Unique labels that are used to designate each value of the scale. All scales possess

description.

Order The relative sizes or positions of the

descriptors. Order is denoted by descriptors such as “greater than”,

“less than”, and “equal to”.

Distance The characteristics of distance means

that absolute differences between the scale descriptors are known and may be expressed in units.

Origin The origin characteristic means that the

scale has unique or fixed beginning.

Primary Scales of Measurement

Nominal Scale

Ordinal Scale

Interval Scale

Ratio Scale

Nominal Scale

A scale whose numbers serve only as labels or tags for identifying and classifying objects.

When its used for purpose of identification, there is a strict one to one correspondence

between the numbers and the objects.

• Jersey Numbers• Aadhar Card numbers

Ordinal Scale

A ranking scale in which numbers are assigned to objects to indicate the relative extent to

which some characteristic is possessed.

It is possible to determine whether an object has more or less of a characteristic than some

other object.

Interval Scale

A scale in which the numbers are used to rate objects such that numerically equal distances on the scale represent equal distances in the

characteristic being measured.

Ratio Scale

It allows the researcher to identify or classify objects, rank order the objects and compare

intervals or differences.

It possesses all properties of nominal, ordinal and interval scales in addition an absolute zero point

It is also meaningful to compute ratios of scale values ( Height, weight, age and money).

Stapel Scale

Thurstone Scale Likert Scale

Semantic Differential

Paired Comparative Scale

Attitude Measurement Scales

Paired Comparison Scaling

A comparative scaling is a technique in which a respondent is presented with two objects at a time and asked to select one object in the pair

according to some criteria.

The data obtained are ordinal in nature.

Thurstone Scale

It is the method of equal appearing intervals.

It is made up of statements about a particular issue, and each statement has a numerical

value indicating how favourable or unfavourable it is judged to be. People check each of the statements to which they agree,

and a mean score is computed, indicating their attitude.

Likert ScaleA measurement scale with five response categories. Theformat of a typical five-level Likert item could be:

• Strongly disagree• Disagree• Neither agree nor disagree• Agree• Strongly agree

Respondents indicate the degree of agreement ordisagreement with each of a series of statements relatedto the stimulus objects

Semantic Differential

It’s a a 7 point rating scale with endpointsassociated with bipolar labels that have

semantic meaning.

The respondent is asked to choose where his orher position lies, on a scale between two bipolar

adjectives (for eg: "Adequate Inadequate", "Good-Evil" or "Valuable-Worthless").

Stapel Scale

A 10 point scale. It’s a scale for measuringattitudes that consists of a single adjective in the

middle of an even numbered range of values,from -5 to +5, without a neutral point (zero).

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