MEASUREMENT AND SCALING:

FUNDAMENTAL AND
COMPARATIVE AND
NONCOMPARATIVE SCALING

Topics to be covered:
Measurement and Scaling
Scale Characteristics and Levels of Measurement
Primary Scales of Measurement
A Comparison of Scaling Techniques
Comparative Scaling Techniques
Noncomparative Scaling Techniques
Major Types of Itemized Scales
Noncomparative Itemized Rating Scale Decisions
MEASUREMENT AND SCALING
 Measurement: The assignment of numbers or other
symbols to characteristics of objects according to certain
prespecified rules. What we measure is not the object but
some characteristics of it. In marketing research
numbers are assigned for two following reasons:
 Numbers permit statistical analysis of the resulting data.
 Numbers facilitate the communication of measurement rules
and results.
 Scaling: The generation of continuum upon which
measured objects are located. Scaling may be considered
as an extension of measurement.
SCALE CHARACTERISTICS AND
LEVELS OF MEASUREMENT
 All scales that we use in marketing research can be
described in terms of four basic characteristics:
 Description: The unique labels or descriptors that are used to
designate each value of the scale. All scales possess description.
 Order: The relative sizes or positions of the description of the
descriptors. Order is denoted by descriptors such as greater than,
less than, and equal to.
 Distance: The characteristic 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 a
unique or fixed beginning or true zero point.
PRIMARY SCALES OF MEASUREMENT
 The following figure illustrates four primary scales:
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 Nominal Scale: A scale whose numbers serve only as labels or
tags for identifying and classifying objects. When used for
identification, there is 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 characteristic
is possessed. Thus 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 distance in the characteristic 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.
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 All scales are illustrated in the given table along with the basic characteristics,
common examples, and marketing examples:
A COMPARISON OF SCALING TECHNIQUES
 The following figure illustrates the various types of comparative and
noncomparative scales:
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 Comparative Scales Defined: One or two types
of scaling techniques in which there is direct
comparison of stimulus objects with one another
 Noncomparative Scales: One or two types of
scaling techniques in which each stimulus object
is scaled independently of the other objects in
the stimulus set.
COMPARATIVE SCALING
TECHNIQUES
 Major comparative scales are:
PairedComparison Scaling
Rank Order Scaling
Constant Sum Scaling
Q-Sort and Other Procedures
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 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 is assumed to
convert paired comparison data to rank order
data.
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 Rank Order Scaling: A comparative scaling
technique in which respondents are presented
with several objects simultaneously and asked to
rank them according to some criterion.
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 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.
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 Q-Sort and Other Procedures: Q-Sort scaling
is a scaling technique that uses a rank order
procedure to sort objects based on similarity
with respect to some criterion. Other
comparative scaling techniques used include
magnitude estimation and Guttman Scaling or
scalogram analysis.
NONCOMPARATIVE SCALING TECHNIQUES

 Two major types of noncomparative scaling

techniques include:
 Continuous Rating Scale: Also referred to as a
graphic rating scale, this measurement scale has the
respondents rate the objects by placing a mark on 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 descriptions associated with
each category. The categories are ordered in terms of
scale position.
MAJOR TYPES OF ITEMIZED SCALES
 The major types of itemized rating scales are:
 Likert Scale: A measurement scale with five response categories
ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree,” which
enables the respondents to indicate a degree of agreement or
disagreement with each of the series of statements related to the
stimulus objects.
 Semantic Differential Scale: A 7-point rating scale with
endpoints 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 of
values, from – 5 to + 5, without a neutral point.
NONCOMPARATIVE ITEMIZED RATING SCALE DECISIONS

 The researcher must make the following six

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 scale
THANK YOU!