Each of these methods are discussed next. The process of creating an index is similar to that of a scale. Likewise, a customer satisfaction scale may be constructed to represent five attributes: ‘strongly dissatisfied’, ‘somewhat dissatisfied’, ‘neutral’, ‘somewhat satisfied’ and ‘strongly satisfied’. Quantitative analysis: Inferential statistics. For instance, the construct “attitude toward national health insurance” can be measured using four items shown in Table 6.4. We also discussed the requirements a measurement must meet to provide these benefits and showed several examples of effective measurements. Table 6.4. This index is a combination of three constructs: income, education, and occupation. For example, the temperature scale (in Fahrenheit or Celsius), where the difference between 30 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit is the same as that between 80 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Another example of index is socio-economic status (SES), also called the Duncan socioeconomic index (SEI). However, researchers sometimes wish to summarise measures of two or more constructs to create a set of categories or types called a typology. A reflective indicator is a measure that “reflects” an underlying construct. The first decision to be made in operationalising a construct is to decide on the intended level of measurement. Standardization is impelled along when there are strong commercial, political, or scientific forces at work. The final scale items are selected as statements that are at equal intervals across a range of medians. All statistical methods are allowed. are equidistant from each other. Examples include gender (two values: male or female), industry type (manufacturing, financial, agriculture, etc. Based on the four generic types of scales discussed above, we can create specific rating scales for social science research. Unidimensional scaling methods were developed during the first half of the twentieth century and were named after their creators. Guttman’s cumulative scaling method. For instance, we often use the word “prejudice” and the word conjures a certain image in our mind; however, we may struggle if we were asked to define exactly what the term meant. For example, male and female (or M and F, or 1 and 2) are two levels of the indicator “gender.” In his seminal article titled “On the theory of scales of measurement” published in Science in 1946, psychologist Stanley Smith Stevens (1946) defined four generic types of rating scales for scientific measurements: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio scales. The initial pool of candidate items (ideally 80 to 100 items) should be worded in a similar manner, for instance, by framing them as statements to which respondents may agree or disagree (and not as questions or other things). These constructs can be measured using a single measure or test. For instance, students’ rankings in class say nothing about their actual GPAs or test scores, or how they well performed relative to one another. Notice that the scale is now almost cumulative when read crosswise from left to right . The process of understanding what is included and what is excluded in the concept of prejudice is the conceptualisation process. Biophysical Measurement in Experimental Social Science Research. Nominal Scale 2. If women earn less than men for the same job, is that gender prejudice? Note that any item with reversed meaning from the original direction of the construct must be reverse coded (i.e., 1 becomes a 5, 2 becomes a 4, and so forth) before summating. That is what constitutes a nominal level of measurement. The intelligence quotient (IQ) scale is also an interval scale, because the scale is designed such that the difference between IQ scores 100 and 110 is supposed to be the same as between 110 and 120 (although we do not really know whether that is truly the case). In social sciences research, obtaining information relevant to the research problem generally entails specifying the type of evidence needed to test a theory, to evaluate a program, or to accurately describe and assess meaning related to an observable phenomenon. Likewise, a customer satisfaction scale may be constructed to represent five attributes: “strongly dissatisfied”, “somewhat dissatisfied”, “neutral”, “somewhat satisfied” and “strongly satisfied”. Table 6.1. As noted in the previous chapter, variables may be independent, dependent, mediating, or moderating, depending on how they are employed in a research study. A semantic differential scale for measuring attitude toward national health insurance. Given the high level of subjectivity and imprecision inherent in social science constructs, we tend to measure most of those constructs (except a few demographic constructs such as age, gender, education, and income) using multiple indicators. What is your desired level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio) or rating scale? Other less common scales are not discussed here. Hair color is an example of a nominal level of measurement. Permissible statistics are chi-square and frequency distribution, and only a one-to-one (equality) transformation is allowed (e.g., 1 = Male, 2 = Female). However, the actual or relative values of attributes or difference in attribute values cannot be assessed. Notice that in Likert scales, the statement changes but the anchors remain the same across items. A typical example of a six-item Likert scale for the “employment self-esteem” construct is shown in Table 6.3. The importance of good measurement has long been recognized in principle, but it has often been neglected in practice in many of the social sciences. A six-item Likert scale for measuring employment self-esteem. Thurstone’s equal-appearing scaling method. Kaplan identified three categories of things that social scientists measure including observational terms, indirect observables, and constructs. Each month, government employees call all over the country to get the current prices of more than 80,000 items. Guttman scale. In this brief video lecture, I talk about how concepts are developed and defined in the social sciences. Answering all of these questions is the key to measuring the prejudice construct correctly. These scales are called ‘ratio’ scales because the ratios of two points on these measures are meaningful and interpretable. How do you wish to label the scale attributes (especially for semantic differential scales)? Are there different kinds of prejudice, and if so, what are they? Note that any item with reversed meaning from the original direction of the construct must be reverse coded (i.e., 1 becomes a 5, 2 becomes a 4, and so forth) before summating. Lastly, validate the index score using existing or new data. For instance, if we conceptualise a person’s academic aptitude as consisting of two dimensions—mathematical and verbal ability—then academic aptitude is a multidimensional construct. Multidimensional constructs consist of two or more underlying dimensions. Ordinal scales can also use attribute labels (anchors) such as “bad”, “medium”, and “good”, or “strongly dissatisfied”, “somewhat dissatisfied”, “neutral”, or “somewhat satisfied”, and “strongly satisfied”. Based on the four generic types of scales discussed above, we can create specific rating scales for social science research. The final scale items are selected as statements that are at equal intervals across a range of medians. How many scale attributes should you use (e.g., 1 to 10; 1 to 7; −3 to +3)? Turning social phenomena into data: measurement instruments for the social sciences. Unlike scales or indexes, typologies are multi-dimensional but include only nominal variables. Values of attributes may be quantitative (numeric) or qualitative (non-numeric). For instance, is “compassion” the same thing as “empathy” or “sentimentality”? Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences is a new interdisciplinary open access journal documenting high quality measurement instruments used across sociology, psychology, education, political science, economics and other social sciences. Three or nine values (often called “anchors”) may also be used, but it is important to use an odd number of values to allow for a “neutral” (or “neither agree nor disagree”) anchor. For instance, the method of paired comparison requires each judge to make a judgment between each pair of statements (rather than rate each statement independently on a 1 to 11 scale). Psychological measurement can look at many different aspects … A group of judges then rate each candidate item as “yes” if they view the item as being favorable to the construct and “no” if they see the item as unfavorable. For instance, how will you categorize occupations, particularly since some occupations may have changed with time (e.g., there were no Web developers before the Internet). One important decision in conceptualising constructs is specifying whether they are unidimensional or multidimensional. Second, operationalise and measure each component. Likert scales are summated scales—that is, the overall scale score may be a summation of the attribute values of each item as selected by a respondent. Since most scales employed in social science research are unidimensional, we will next three examine approaches for creating unidimensional scales. Values of attributes may be quantitative (numeric) or qualitative (non-numeric). However, there may be a few exceptions, as shown in Table 6.6, and hence the scale is not entirely cumulative. Table 6.3. This kind of research involves quantifying or measuring the subject or data relating to the subject. For instance, is ‘compassion’ the same thing as ‘empathy’ or ‘sentimentality’? Hence, the name paired comparison method. A classic example in the natural sciences is Moh’s scale of mineral hardness, which characterizes the hardness of various minerals by their ability to scratch other minerals. Attaching a rating scale to a statement or instrument is not scaling. Biophysical Measurement In Experimental Social Science Research. Some argue that the sophistication of the scaling methodology makes scales different from indexes, while others suggest that indexing methodology can be equally sophisticated. Note that some of these scales may include multiple items, but all of these items attempt to measure the same underlying dimension. Semantic differential scale. These constructs can be measured using a single measure or test. Ordinal scales can also use attribute labels (anchors) such as ‘bad, ‘medium’, and ‘good’, or ‘strongly dissatisfied’, ‘somewhat dissatisfied’, ‘neutral’, or ‘somewhat satisfied’, and ‘strongly satisfied’. For instance, the construct ‘attitude toward national health insurance’ can be measured using four items shown in Table 6.4. Researchers should be able to generalize results, so conclusions drawn from one particular study can be applied to similar situations. This can be done by grouping items with a common median, and then selecting the item with the smallest inter-quartile range within each median group. Indicators may be reflective or formative. Likert’s summative scaling method. Stevens (1946) said, ‘Scaling is the assignment of objects to numbers according to a rule’. Measures are social constructs, and the process of gaining standardization around measures is very much a social process involving social actors and negotiations, like any science or any political process. Unidimensional scaling methods were developed during the first half of the twentieth century and were named after their creators. Levels of measurement, also called rating scales, refer to the values that an indicator can take (but says nothing about the indicator itself). For instance, academic aptitude can be measured using two separate tests of students’ mathematical and verbal ability, and then combining these scores to create an overall measure for academic aptitude. For example, a firm of size zero means that it has no employees or revenues. This matrix is sorted in decreasing order from judges with more “yes” at the top to those with fewer “yes” at the bottom. Though indexes and scales yield a single numerical score or value representing a construct of interest, they are different in many ways. An index is a composite score derived from aggregating measures of multiple constructs (called components) using a set of rules and formulas. The median value of each scale item represents the weight to be used for aggregating the items into a composite scale score representing the construct of interest. Indicators operate at the empirical level, in contrast to constructs, which are conceptualised at the theoretical level. Menu. Allowed scale transformation are positive linear. The journal emphasizes research concerned with issues or methods that cut across traditional disciplinary lines. They are simply different. A reflective indicator is a measure that ‘reflects’ an underlying construct. Some of these decisions are: This chapter examined the process and outcomes of scale development. The previous section discussed how we can measure respondents’ responses to predesigned items or indicators belonging to an underlying construct. The combination of indicators at the empirical level representing a given construct is called a variable . Among the frustrations constantly confronting the social scientist are those associated with the general process of measurement. Designed by Guttman (1950), the cumulative scaling method is based on Emory Bogardus’ social distance technique, which assumes that people’s willingness to participate in social relations with other people vary in degrees of intensity, and measures that intensity using a list of items arranged from “least intense” to “most intense”. Unidimensional constructs are measured using reflective indicators (even though multiple reflective indicators may be used for measuring abstruse constructs such as self-esteem), while multidimensional constructs are measured as a formative combination of the multiple dimensions, even though each of the underlying dimensions may be measured using one or more reflective indicators. Written to be accessible to ge However, in semantic differential scales, the statement remains constant, while the anchors (adjective pairs) change across items. The next chapter will examine how to evaluate the reliability and validity of the scales developed using the above approaches. For example, a typical binary scale for the “political activism” construct may consist of the six binary items shown in Table 6.2. Some argue that the sophistication of the scaling methodology makes scales different from indexes, while others suggest that indexing methodology can be equally sophisticated. Quantitative research utilizes mainly scientific methods to generate hypotheses or develop ways of … Knowledge of social research is useful for interpreting and weighing such reports. Likert scales are summated scales, that is, the overall scale score may be a summation of the attribute values of each item as selected by a respondent. Likert items allow for more granularity (more finely tuned response) than binary items, including whether respondents are neutral to the statement. Qualitative research is used most often in the social sciences to study people, behavior, language and culture. In the latter case, we can say that respondents who are ‘somewhat satisfied’ are less satisfied than those who are ‘strongly satisfied’, but we cannot quantify their satisfaction levels. These items are generated by experts who know something about the construct being measured. When researchers collect quantitative data, all of it is retrieved in numerical form. Many behavioral laboratories across the globe have acquired increasingly sophisticated biophysical measurement equipment, sometimes for particular research … These scales are used for variables or indicators that have mutually exclusive attributes. For example, a firm of size 10 employees is double that of a firm of size 5, and the same can be said for a firm of 10,000 employees relative to a different firm of 5,000 employees. Quantitative analysis: Descriptive statistics, 15. Such indicators may represent different dimensions of the construct of interest. In the end, researcher’s’ judgment may be used to obtain a relatively small (say 10 to 15) set of items that have high item-to-total correlations and high discrimination (i.e., high -values). The previous section discussed how to measure respondents’ responses to predesigned items or indicators belonging to an underlying construct. A typical example of a six-item Likert scale for the ‘employment self-esteem’ construct is shown in Table 6.3. Each item in this scale is a binary item, and the total number of ‘yes’ indicated by a respondent (a value from zero to six) can be used as an overall measure of that person’s political activism. To understand how these items were derived, refer to the “Scaling” section later on in this chapter. For instance, in the SES index, if income is correlated with education and occupation, should we include one component only or all three components? This unique multi-volume reference set offers readers an all-encompassing education in the ways of social science researchers. Indicators operate at the empirical level, in contrast to constructs, which are conceptualized at the theoretical level. We now have a scale which looks like a ruler, with one item or statement at each of the 11 points on the ruler (and weighted as such). For instance, there may be certain tribes in the world who lack prejudice and who cannot even imagine what this concept entails. Indicators may be reflective or formative. Histogram for Thurstone scale items, Likert’s summative scaling method . Most measurement in the natural sciences and engineering, such as mass, incline of a plane, and electric charge, employ ratio scales, as are some social science variables such as age, tenure in an organization, and firm size (measured as employee count or gross revenues). Sophisticated transformation such as positive similar (e.g., multiplicative or logarithmic) are also allowed. Semantic differential is believed to be an excellent technique for measuring people’s attitude or feelings toward objects, events, or behaviours. 14. In the end, researcher’s judgment may be used to obtain a relatively small (say 10 to 15) set of items that have high item-to-total correlations and high discrimination (i.e., high t-values). This process allows us to examine the closeness amongst these indicators as an assessment of their accuracy (reliability). The central tendency measure of an ordinal scale can be its median or mode, and means are uninterpretable. Table 6.5. Next, a panel of judges is recruited to select specific items from this candidate pool to represent the construct of interest. However, in semantic differential scales, the statement remains constant, while the anchors (adjective pairs) change across items. A five-item Guttman scale for measuring attitude toward immigrants. The process of regarding mental constructs as real is called reification , which is central to defining constructs and identifying measurable variables for measuring them. For example, a firm size ten employees is double that of a firm of size five, and the same can be said for a firm of 10,000 employees relative to a different firm of 5,000 employees. Judges may include academics trained in the process of instrument construction or a random sample of respondents of interest (i.e., people who are familiar with the phenomenon). For instance, if an unobservable theoretical construct such as socioeconomic status is defined as the level of family income, it can be operationalised using an indicator that asks respondents the question: what is your annual family income? This is a composite (multi-item) scale where respondents are asked to indicate their opinions or feelings toward a single statement using different pairs of adjectives framed as polar opposites. Download full Biophysical Measurement In Experimental Social Science Research Book or read online anytime anywhere, Available in PDF, ePub and Kindle. The Tests and Measures in the Social Sciences (TMSS) is an index to tests and measurement tools used in psychology, sociology, health, marketing, management, and so on, that may be found in one or more reference resources. Conceptualisation is the mental process by which fuzzy and imprecise constructs (concepts) and their constituent components are defined in concrete and precise terms. Each of the underlying dimensions in this case must be measured separately—for example, using different tests for mathematical and verbal ability—and the two scores can be combined, possibly in a weighted manner, to create an overall value for the academic aptitude construct. The combination of indicators at the empirical level representing a given construct is called a variable. Biophysical Measurement in Experimental Social Science Research is an ideal primer for the experimental social scientist wishing to update their knowledge and skillset in the area of laboratory-based biophysical measurement. Guttman’s cumulative scaling method . On the theory of scales of measurement. How will you rate your opinions on the following statements about immigrants? This scale includes Likert items that are simply-worded statements to which respondents can indicate their extent of agreement or disagreement on a five or seven-point scale ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. Like previous scaling methods, the Guttman method also starts with a clear definition of the construct of interest, and then uses experts to develop a large set of candidate items. The main purposes of social research Units of analysis How to design a research project The elements of research proposals Measurement ... Levels of Measurement - all measurements in science are conducted using 4 different types of scales: Nominal Level-variables with attributes of exhaustiveness and mutually exclusiveness. Social Science Research publishes papers devoted to quantitative social science research and methodology. The Likert method, a unidimensional scaling method developed by Murphy and Likert (1938),[3] is quite possibly the most popular of the three scaling approaches described in this chapter. These very different measures are combined to create an overall SES index score, using a weighted combination of ‘occupational education’ (percentage of people in that occupation who had one or more year of university education) and ‘occupational income’ (percentage of people in that occupation who earned more than a specific annual income). Sorted rating matrix for a Guttman scale. However, researchers sometimes wish to summarize measures of two or more constructs to create a set of categories or types called a typology . First, indexes often comprise of components that are very different from each other (e.g., income, education, and occupation in the SES index) and are measured in different ways. The statistical technique also estimates a score for each item that can be used to compute a respondent’s overall score on the entire set of items. 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