MEASUREMENT AND SCALING

MEASUREMENT
 The assignment of 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.
 NOMINAL SCALE
 A scale whose numbers serve only as
labels or tags for identifying and
classifying objects with a strict one-to-one
correspondence between the numbers and
the objects.
 ORDINAL SCALE
 A ranking scale in which numbers are
assigned to objects to indicate the relative
extent to which some characteristics is
possessed. Thus it is possible to
determine whether an object has more or
less of characteristics 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 characteristics being
measured.
 RATIO SCALE
 The highest scale. It allows the
researcher to identify or classify objects,
rank order the objects, and compare
intervals or differences. It is also
meaningful to compute ratios of scale
values.
 COMPARATIVE SCALES
 One of two types of scaling techniques in
which there is direct comparison of
stimulus objectives with one another.
 NONCOMPARATIVE SCALES
 One of two types of scaling techniques in
which each stimulus object is scaled
independently of the other objects is the
stimulus set.
PAIRED COMPARISON SCALING
 A comparative scaling 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
criterion. The data obtained are ordinal in
nature.
TRANSITIVITY OF PREFERENCE
 An assumption made in order to convert
paired comparison data to rank order
data. It implies that if brand A is
preferred to brand B and brand B is
preferred to brand C, then brand A is
preferred to brand C.
 RANK ORDER SCALING
 A comparative scaling technique in which
respondents are presented with several
objects simultaneously and asked to order
or rank them according to some criterion.
 CONSTANT SUM SCALING
 A comparative scaling technique in which
respondents are required to allocate a
constant sum of units such as points,
dollars, chits, stickers, or chips among a
set of stimulus objects with respect to
some criterion.
 Q-SORT SCALING
 A comparative scaling technique that uses
a rank order procedure to sort objects
based on similarity with respect to some
criterion.
NONCOMPARATIVE SCALING
TECHNIQUES
 NONCOMPARATIVE SCALE
 One of two types of scaling techniques in
which each stimulus object is scaled
independently of the other objects in the
stimulus set.
 CONTINUOUS RATING SCALE
 Also referred to as graphic rating scale,
this measurement scale has the
respondents rate the objects by placing a
mark at the appropriate position on a line
that runs from one extreme of the
criterion variable to the other.
 ITEMIZED RATING SCALE
 A measurement scale having numbers
and/or brief description associated with
each category. The categories are
ordered in terms of scale position.
 LIKERT SCALE
 A measurement scale with five response
categories ranging from “strong disagree”
to “strongly agree,” which requires the
respondents to indicate a degree of
agreement or disagreement with each of a
series of statements related to the
stimulus objects.
 SEMANTIC DIFFERENT
 A seven-point rating scale with end-points
associated with bipolar labels that have
semantic meaning.
 STAPEL SCALE
 A scale for measuring attitudes that
consists of a single adjective in the middle
of an even-numbered range or values,
from –5 to +5, without a neutral point
(zero).
 NONCOMPARATIVE ITEMIZED
RATING SCALE DECISIONS
 The number of scale categories to use
 Balanced versus unbalanced scale
 Odd or even number of categories
 Forced versus nonforced choice
 The nature and degree of the verbal
description
 The physical form of the scale