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Measurement & Scaling: Asst - Prof .Seena Alappatt Dept - Management Studies

1. Measurement involves assigning numbers or names to objects and their attributes according to predefined rules. There are four types of scales: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio. 2. Nominal scales categorize without order or structure. Ordinal scales introduce order but not equal intervals. Interval scales add equal intervals but no defined zero point. Ratio scales have order, equal intervals, and a defined zero point. 3. Sources of error in measurement include respondents, the measurement situation, the person recording results, and the measurement instrument used. Good measures are reliable, valid, and practical for their purpose.

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31 views13 pages

Measurement & Scaling: Asst - Prof .Seena Alappatt Dept - Management Studies

1. Measurement involves assigning numbers or names to objects and their attributes according to predefined rules. There are four types of scales: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio. 2. Nominal scales categorize without order or structure. Ordinal scales introduce order but not equal intervals. Interval scales add equal intervals but no defined zero point. Ratio scales have order, equal intervals, and a defined zero point. 3. Sources of error in measurement include respondents, the measurement situation, the person recording results, and the measurement instrument used. Good measures are reliable, valid, and practical for their purpose.

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seena15
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CHAPTER:8 MEASUREMENT & SCALING

Asst.Prof .Seena Alappatt Dept.Management Studies


• Meaning of measurement: Measurement is a
systematic way of assigning numbers or names
to objects and their attribute. It is done
according to certain pre-specified rules. A
scale of measurement allows the researcher
to make comparisons of amounts and changes
in the variable being measured.
• The number system used to measure
characteristics should have the following
characteristics.
•Order: numbers placed in a logical sequence.
•Distance: difference between the numbers are
ordered.
•Origin: the number system has a unique origin
indicated by number zero.
Measurement can be done using the four different
types of system.
•Nominal measurement: it has no order, distance
or origin.
•Ordinal measurement: it has an order but no
distance and origin.
•Interval scale: it has order and distance but no
origin.
•Ratio measurement: it has order, distance and
origin.
Types of Data
• Nominal scale :it is a simple system of assigning
numbers to events in order to label them.
• It is the basic form of measurement which
partitions a set into two categories
without any order or structure
• Eg: numbers assigned to play volleyball in order to
identify them or to distinguish one person from
another. These are least restrictive and thus, the
simplest scale. It is the least powerful of the four
types since it has no order, no distance and no
arithmetic relationship
• In research activities a YES/NO scale is
nominal. It has no order and there is no
distance between YES and NO

• The statistics which can be used with nominal


scales are in the non-parametric group. The
most likely ones would be: mode cross
tabulation-with chi-square
• Ordinal scale: it introduces the concept of
order. It is also known as ranking scale.
• The ordinal scale places events in order. It is
the lowest level of ordered scale. This scale
thus ranks the objects and individuals. The use
of ordinal scale implies a greater than or less
than relationship between objects being
measured without stating the degree of
greater or less .
• In ordinal scale it helps you to place events in an order,
but there is no attempt to make the intervals of the scale
equal in terms of some rule. Eg:when a market researcher
asks you to rank 5 types of beer from most flavorful to
least flavorful, he/she is asking you to create an ordinal
scale of preference. There is no objective distance
between preference. There is no objective distance
between any two points on your subjective scale. For you
the top beer maybe far superior to the second preferred
beer but, to another respondent with the same top and
second beer, the distance may be subjectively small.
•An ordinal scale only lets you interpret gross order and not
the relative positional distances.
• Interval scale: it is also known as cardinal level
of management, interval scales add information
about distance between ranks. It has all
characteristics of nominal and ordinal scale. In
addition it has the property of equality of
interval. ie, the difference in the distance will be
same for all constraints. Eg: if we are measuring
the performance of three students A,B & C on
an interval scale and we get the score 1,3 and 7,
it can be graphically depicted as follows
• The standard survey rating scale is an interval
scale. When you are asked to rate your
satisfaction with 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 equal distant points between each of the
scale elements. This means that we can interpret
elements. This means that we can interpret
differences in the distance along the scale. We
contrast this to an ordinal scale where we can
only talk about differences in order, not
differences in the degree of order.
Ratio Scale: Ratio data is characterized by the presence
of order, distance and unique origin. It measures the
absolute amount of variables. It is the most powerful
of the four scales as it has a unique origin as zero.
Height, weight, centimeter scale are examples.
Weighing machine is a good example of ratio scale.
It has an absolute zero and a person weighing 80kg
is as heavy as a person weighting 40kg. All
statistical technique applicable to the previous scales
can be applied on ratio scale also. In addition
geometric mean, harmonic mean can also be used.
Sources of Measurement Error
• 1)Respondent:when humans are respondents, their
emotions,feelings,fatigue influences in giving wrong
answers and in effect measurement faces error.
• 2)The situation: environment in which the
respondents are answering also influences response
and creates errors in measurement.
• 3)The measurer: the person who is responsible for
recording the results may also act as a potential
source of error.
• 4)The instrument: the tools used for collecting data
also be a source of error.
GOODNESS OF MEASURES
• Any instrument that meets the test of reliability, validity
and practicality is said to posses the 'goodness of
measures’.
• 1.Practicality :Practicality is explained based on operational
view point, based on three factors :
a)Economy:the more tools for measurement, reliability will
be more and costal so will be more. So to control cost we
may have to reduce tools.
b)Convenience: the tool used for measurement must be
convenient to use and easy to administer.
c)Interpretability:it should be easy to interpret the scores
given by the instrument.

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