MODULE 8

MEASUREMENT AND SCALING

TYPES OF SCALES OF MEASUREMENT
Scales of
measurement
Nominal Ordinal
A variable with natural,
A variable with categories ordered categories and the
that do not have a natural distances between the
order or ranking. categories is not known.
Eg: gender (Male/ Female/ Eg: Satisfaction rating
Trans/ Others/ Not (“extremely dislike”,
specified) “dislike”, “neutral”, “like”,
“extremely like”)
Interval Ratio
A ratio variable, has all the
An interval scale is one properties of an interval
where there is order and variable, and also has a
the difference between two clear definition of 0. When
values is meaningful. the variable equals 0, there
Eg: Temperature (Farenheit/ is no value.
Celcius) Eg: Weight/ Height (0 kgs/ 0
metres), Money
SCALES OF MEASUREMENT (CONTD.)

¡ Could you say 20 degs Cel is twice as hot as 10 degs Cel?

Not really! This is an interval scale.
¡ Would you get a meaningful measure if you divide the
year 2019 by the year 2015?
Again... 2019/2015=1.002. What does this mean? Time too is
measured in interval scale.
¡ If person A weighed 50 kgs and person B weighed 100 kgs,
could you say Person B is twice as heavier as Person A?
Yes, that would make sense... Or if I say I have 10 INR and
you have 50 INR and make a statement like you have 5 times
more the money I have, that would mean something too.
Weight, money are measured in ratio scale.
 WHAT DIFFERENT SCALES OFFER
Offers: Nominal Ordinal Interval Ratio
Sequence of variables can be X Yes Yes Yes
established
Mode Yes Yes Yes Yes
Mean X X Yes Yes
Median X Yes Yes Yes
Difference between variables can X X Yes Yes
be evaluated
Addition/subtraction can be done X X Yes Yes

Multiplication/ division can be X X X Yes

done
Has absolute zero X X X Yes
Examples Caste, Religion, Marital Preference ranking, Opinion and attitude scales, Age, Money, Weight,
status, Brands Social class, Tier of cities temperature, year, time Height
ATTITUDE SCALES

Components of
attitude

Intention/ action
Cognitive Affective
(based on behavior/
(based on knowledge) (based on emotions)
intention of purchase)
CLASSIFICATION OF SCALES
Scaling techniques

Comparative Non-comparative

Paired Graphic rating Itemized rating

comparison scale scale

Constant sum Likert

Rank order Semantic

differential

Q-sort and other

procedures Stapel
COMPARATIVE SCALES

¡ Use of a standard frame of reference

¡ Eg: “How do you rate Starbucks compared to CCD on the quality of coffee?”
 PAIRED COMPARISON SCALES
¡ Respondent is presented with two objects and asked to select one according to
whatever criterion he/she wants to use Q: What scale is
Coffee Starbucks CCD Barista Costa Total number of Rank by this?
A: Ordinal
chains in Coffee people who preference
India you preferred the row
prefer in brand over the Data from paired
comparison scales
comparison column brand
can be converted
to into interval scale
Starbucks . 9 7 8 24 1 using Thurston’s
law of comparative
15 3 judgement by
CCD 5 . 6 4 calculating
10 4 proportions/
Barista 3 5 . 2 probabilities

Costa Coffee 4 8 9 . 21 2

Total 12 22 22 14 70
CONSTANT SUM

¡ Respondents are asked to allocate a total of 100 points between various objects and brands
¡ Which coffee chain would you prefer to have your morning coffee from?

Brands Points
Starbucks
CCD
Barista
Costa Coffee
Total 100
RANK ORDER SCALING

¡ Respondents are presented with several objects/ brands simultaneously and asked to
order rank them according to their preference
¡ What beverage do you like in the morning? Rank them according to your preference.
Beverage Rank
Cold water
Warm water
Warm water with lemon and honey
Black tea
Milk tea
Coffee
Smoothie
 Q-SORT TECHNIQUE

¡ Developed to discriminate among a large number of objects quickly.

¡ Eg: pile up comments on a particular product of a brand in three categories.

Negative Neutral Positive

I condemn using products from this
It was okay. The best product ever.
brand

This brand should be banned from the Thought of trying it out, let's see how it
I was highly satisfied with the results
country works.

Not sure how well this will be, just got This brand is awesome, will definitely
Completely hated the product
the product delivered yesterday. recommend it to friends
NON-COMPARATIVE SCALES

¡ No reference frame is used for response

¡ Responses are usually on interval/ratio scales
¡ Eg: Quality of food here was:
1. Horrible
2. Not that great
3. Okay
4. Pretty good
5. Wonderful
GRAPHIC RATING SCALE
ITEMIZED RATING SCALE

¡ No. of categories to be used

¡ Odd or even number of categories
¡ Balanced vs. unbalanced scales Examples of different types of
physical forms of a scale:
¡ Nature and degree of verbal description
¡ Forced vs. non-forced scales
¡ Physical form
¡ Likert scale
SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL SCALE
¡ Used to compare the images of competing brands, companies or services
¡ Unlike Likert scale, Semantic Differential scale are bounded by bipolar adjectives or phrases
STAPEL SCALE

¡ Used to measure direction and intensity of

an attitude
¡ Compared to the semantic scale, staple
scale uses only one single adjective
¡ Has 10 categories, presented in vertical
form
MEASUREMENT ERRORS
¡ When the observed measurement on a construct or concept deviates from its true values. Can be due to:
¡ Respondent bias
¡ Variations in the environment where the measurement is taken
¡ Interviewer’s bias
¡ Respondents not clear about a question/ ambiguous questions
¡ Data entry/ cleaning

O=T+S+R
Where,
O=observed measurement
T=True measurement
S=Systematic error
R=Random error
CONTINGENCY TABLES

True condition

Predicted condition

Positive Negative

False positive FP
Predicted positive True positive TP
(Type I error)

False negative FN
Predicted negative True negative TN
(Type II error)
CRITERIA FOR GOOD MEASUREMENT

Reliability Validity Specificity Sensitivity

• Test-retest • Content "# "&

• "#$%&
• "&$%#
reliability validity =Probability =Probability
• Split-half • Concurrent that a test that a test
reliability validity shows shows
method • Predictive negative when positive for
validity the person those who are
actually does truly positive.
not have the
disease.
SPECIFICITY AND SENSITIVITY

In health context, Specificity is to identify a person who does not have the
disease correctly and Sensitivity is to identify a patient suffering from the
disease correctly.
CRONBACH’S ALPHA AND INTERNAL CONSISTENCY