Objectives

Introduction

Measurement and Scaling

Issues in Attitude Measurement

Levels of Measurement Scales

Types of Scaling Techniques

# Comparative Scales
# Non-comparative Scales

Selection of an Appropriate Scaling Technique

Conclusion

Key Words
The Measurement & Scaling Technique helps us to :

explain the concepts of measurement and scaling,

discuss four levels of measurement scales,

classify and discuss different scaling techniques, and

select an appropriate attitude measurement scale for

our research problem.
What are Variables and Measurements?

 Variables: Characteristics that can take on

different values for different members of a
group. For example height
 Measurements: “Assignment of numbers to
Characteristics (variables) of objects, persons
or events.”
What is Measurement?
Measurement is the assignment of numerals to
objects or events according to rules.
■ Numerals are labels that have no inherent
meaning, for example pin codes, or automobile
license plates.
■ Numbers are numerals that have quantitative
meaning and can be analyzed, for example, age.

In statistics and quantitative research

methodology, levels of measurement are
developed by the psychologist Stanley Smith
Stevens.
Measurement and Scaling

Measurement: the assignment of numbers of other symbols

to characteristics of objects according to certain
prespecified rules.

Scaling: involves creating a continuum upon

which measured objects are located. Consider an
attitude scale from 1 to 100.
 Problems in Measurement Scaling
1. Problem Related with Respondent :– If the respondent have a
very little knowledge but may not admit his ignorance. He gave
the answers with guesses and many other major which create
problem to respond accurately and fully.

2. Situation :– Situational factor may also come in the way of

correct scaling. A respondent can give different answers in the
different situation.

3. Measurer :– The interviewer behavior, style, look may encourage

or discourage certain replies from respondents. Careless
mechanical processing may distort the findings.

4. Instrument :– Error may create because of using defective

measuring instrument. The use of context words, ambiguous
meaning, poor printing, and inadequate space for replies, etc.
which makes the measuring instrument defective.
As we discussed earlier, the data consists of quantitative
variables, like price, income, sales etc., and qualitative
variables like knowledge, performance , character etc. The
qualitative information must be converted into numerical
form for further analysis. This is possible through
measurement and scaling techniques. A common feature of
survey based research is to have respondent’s feelings,
attitudes, opinions, etc. in some measurable form.
When a researcher is interested in measuring the attitudes, feelings or
opinions of respondents he/she should be clear about the following:

a) What is to be measured?

b) Who is to be measured?

c) The choices available in data collection techniques

The level of measurement refers to the relationship among the
values that are assigned to the attributes, feelings or opinions for
a variable.

Typically, there are four levels of measurement scales or

methods of assigning numbers:
(a) Nominal scale,
(b) Ordinal scale,
(c) Interval scale, and
(d) Ratio scale.
 Nominal Scale is the crudest among all measurement
scales but it is also the simplest scale. In this scale the different
scores on a measurement simply indicate different categories.

•The nominal scale does not express any values or relationships

between variables.
•The nominal scale is often referred to as a categorical scale.
•The assigned numbers have no arithmetic properties and act
only as labels. The only statistical operation that can be
performed on nominal scales is a frequency count. We cannot
determine an average except mode.
For example: labeling men as ‘1’ and women as ‘2’ which is the
most common way of labeling gender for data recording
purpose does not mean women are ‘twice something or other’
than men. Nor it suggests that men are somehow ‘better’ than
women.
 Ordinal Scale involves the ranking of items along the
continuum of the characteristic being scaled. In this scale, the
items are classified according to whether they have more or
less of a characteristic.
The main characteristic of the ordinal scale is that the
categories have a logical or ordered relationship. This type of
scale permits the measurement of degrees of
difference, (i.e. ‘more’ or ‘less’) but not the specific amount
of differences (i.e. how much ‘more’ or ‘less’). This scale is
very common
in marketing, satisfaction and attitudinal research.
Using ordinal scale data, we can perform statistical analysis
like Median and Mode, but not the Mean.
For example, a fast food home delivery shop may wish to ask
its customers:
How would you rate the service of our staff?
(1) Excellent • (2) Very Good • (3) Good • (4) Poor • (5) Worst •
 Interval Scale is a scale in which the numbers are used to
rank attributes such that numerically equal distances on the scale
represent equal distance in the characteristic being measured. An
interval scale contains all the information of an ordinal scale, but it
also one allows to compare the difference/distance between
attributes. Interval scales may be either in numeric or semantic
formats.
The interval scales allow the calculation of averages like
Mean, Median and Mode and dispersion like Range and Standard
Deviation.
For example, the difference between ‘1’ and ‘2’ is equal to
the difference between ‘3’ and ‘4’. Further, the difference between
‘2’ and ‘4’ is twice the difference between ‘1’ and ‘2’.
Measuring temperature is an example of interval scale. But, we
cannot say 40°C is twice as hot as 20°C.
 Ratio Scale is the highest level of measurement scales. This
has the properties of an interval scale together with a fixed (absolute)
zero point. The absolute zero point allows us to construct a
meaningful ratio.
Ratio scales permit the researcher to compare both differences in
scores and relative magnitude of scores. Examples of ratio scales
include weights, lengths and times.
For example, the number of customers of a bank’s ATM in the last
three months is a ratio scale. This is because you can compare this
with previous three months.
For example, the difference between 10 and 15 minutes is the same as
the difference between 25 and 30 minutes and 30 minutes is twice as
long as 15 minutes
In comparative scaling, the respondent is asked to
compare one object with another.

The comparative scales can further be divided into the

following four types of scaling techniques:
(a) Paired Comparison Scale,
(b) Rank Order Scale,
(c) Constant Sum Scale, and
(d) Q-sort Scale.
Paired Comparison Scale:
This is a comparative scaling technique in which a respondent is
presented with two objects at a time and asked to select one
object according to some criterion. The data obtained are
ordinal in nature.
For example, there are four types of cold drinks -
Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, and Limca. The respondents can prefer
Pepsi to Coke or Coke to Sprite, etc.
Rank Order Scale:
•This is another type of comparative scaling technique in which
respondents are presented with several items simultaneously
and asked to rank them in the order of priority.

•This is an ordinal scale that describes the favoured and

unfavoured objects, but does not reveal the distance between
the objects.

•The resultant data in rank order is ordinal data. This yields

better results when direct comparison are required between
the given objects.

•The major disadvantage of this technique is that only

•ordinal data can be generated.
Constant Sum Scale:
In this scale, the respondents are asked to allocate a constant sum
of units such as points, rupees, or chips among a set of stimulus
objects with respect to some criterion.

For example, you may wish to determine how important the

attributes of price, fragrance, packaging, cleaning power, and froth
of a detergent are to consumers. Respondents might be asked to
divide a constant sum to indicate the relative importance of the
attributes.

Advantage of this technique is :

•saving time.
Disadvantages are :
•The respondents may allocate more or fewer points than those
specified.
•The second problem is respondents might be confused.
 Q-Sort Scale:
This is a comparative scale that uses a rank order procedure to sort
objects based on similarity with respect to some criterion. The important
characteristic of this methodology is that it is more important to make
comparisons among different responses of a respondent than the
responses between different respondents. Therefore, it is a comparative
method of scaling rather than an absolute rating scale.

In this method the respondent is given statements in a large number for

describing the characteristics of a product or a large number of brands of
a product.
In non-comparative scaling respondents need only evaluate a
single object. Their evaluation is independent of the other
object which the researcher is studying.

The non-comparative scaling techniques can be further

divided into:
(a)Continuous Rating Scale, and
(b)Itemized Rating Scale.
Continuous Rating Scales :
It is very simple and highly useful. In continuous rating scale, the
respondent’s rate the objects by placing a mark at the appropriate
position on a continuous line that runs from one extreme of the
criterion variable to the other.

Example :
Question: How would you rate the TV advertisement as a guide
for buying?
Itemized Rating Scales :
Itemized rating scale is a scale having numbers or brief descriptions
associated with each category. The categories are ordered in terms
of scale position and the respondents are required to select one of the
limited number of categories that best describes the product, brand,
company, or product attribute being rated. Itemized rating scales are
widely used in marketing research.

Itemised rating scales is further divided into three parts, namely

(a) Likert scale,
(b) Semantic Differential Scale, and
(c) Stapel Scale.
The itemised rating scales can be in the form of : (a) graphic, (b)
verbal, or (c) numeric as shown below :
Likert Scale:
Likert, is extremely popular for measuring attitudes, because, the
method is simple to administer. With the Likert scale, the respondents
indicate their own attitudes by checking how strongly they agree or
disagree with carefully worded statements that range from very positive
to very negative towards the attitudinal object.

Respondents choose from five alternatives (say strongly agree, agree,

neither agree nor disagree, disagree, strongly disagree).

A Likert scale may include a number of items or statements.

Disadvantage of Likert Scale is that it takes longer time to complete

than other itemised rating scales because respondents have to read
each statement.
Despite the above disadvantages, this scale has several advantages.
It is easy to construct, administer and use.
Semantic Differential Scale:
This is a seven point rating scale with end points associated with
bipolar labels (such as good and bad, complex and simple) that have
semantic meaning. It can be used to find whether a respondent has a
positive or negative attitude towards an object.
It has been widely used in comparing brands, products and company
images. It has also been used to develop advertising and promotion
strategies and in a new product development study.
Staple Scale:

The Stapel scale was originally developed to measure the direction and
intensity of an attitude simultaneously. Modern versions of the Stapel
scale place a single adjective as a substitute for the Semantic
differential when it is difficult to create pairs of bipolar adjectives. The
modified Stapel scale places a single adjective in the centre of an even
number of numerical Values.

It was developed by Jan Stapel. This scale has some distinctive

features:-
•Each item has only one word/phrase indicating the dimension it
represents.
•Each item has ten response categories.
•The response categories have numerical labels but no verbal
labels.
 Reliability and Validity
Reliability is another term for consistency. If one person takes the
same personality test several times and always receives the same
results, the test is reliable.

A test is valid if it measures what it is supposed to measure. If the

results of the personality test claimed that a very shy person was in
fact outgoing, the test would be invalid.

Reliability and validity are independent of each other. A

measurement maybe valid but not reliable, or reliable but not valid.
Suppose your bathroom scale was reset to read 10 pound lighter.
The weight it reads will be reliable(the same every time you step on
it) but will not be valid, since it is not reading your actual weight.
•There are four levels of measurements:
nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.

•The measurement scales, commonly used in marketing

research, can be divided into two types; comparative and
non-comparative scales.

•A number of scaling techniques are available for

measurement of attitudes.

•There is no unique way that you can use to select a particular

scaling technique for your research study.
Level of Measurement Pop Quiz Identify the following as
nominal level, ordinal level, interval level, or ratio level data.

1. Flavors of frozen yogurt ________________

2. Amount of money in savings accounts________________
3. Students classified by their reading ability: Above
average, Below average, Normal ________________
4. Letter grades on an English essay ________________
5. Religions ________________
6. Commuting times to work ____________
7. Ages (in years) of art students ________________
8. Ice cream flavor preference ________________
9. Years of important historical events ________________
10. Instructors classified as: Easy, Difficult or Impossible
________________
Answers: 1. Nominal, 2. Ratio, 3. Interval, 4. Ordinal, 5. Nominal, 6. Ratio, 7. Ratio, 8.
Ordinal, 9.Interval , 10. Ordinal
A paired comparison is usually a method in which a certain employee, and
his/ her job is compared with another employee of a similar post, and his/ her
job.

A type of comparative scale where respondents are asked to sort between

60-90 objects (usually) into piles according to some criteria. It is a useful
technique for sorting relatively large numbers of objects quite quickly.