Measurement

Measurement

• The way to link and analyze abstract concepts to observable events.
• "What do I need to understand?"
• "What data will I collect?"
• The measurement process:
• Identify and define the concept of interest
• Specify an observable event
• Evaluate and revise the observable event
• It is a quickly moving field

Folie 2

• Dated Measures
• Caused by fast paced industry
• Things change all the time
• changes what is measured
• Accurate Measurement units
• Getting harder to measure time and frecuency
• Consistency in measurements

Stage 1: Identify and Define the Concept

• This stage is when you determine the general area to be explored and end it with a detailed, explicit definition of what is measured.

Identify the Concept

• All research starts with a need for informat
• Concept: An invented name for a property of an object, person, state, or event.
• There are explicit and abstract concepts

Develop a Definition

• A conceptual definition expresses a concept's central idea.
• Researchers need to be sensitive to the fact that for any particular concept there is a bunch of definitions.
• The process requires that all involved in the research agree on what is the conceptual definition.

Develop a Definition

• Once a concept has been identified and defined, then it is operationally defined.
• An operational definition translates the concept into an observable event
• Similar to the different operational definitions of affection, differences in perspective, among researchers often lead to differences in conceptual definitions.
• Process:
• Explicitly Specify the concept of interest
• Explore different aspects of the concepts meaning
• Explicitly specify what can be observed
• Evaluate and select one or more of the alternatives identified
• Keep in mind the the operational definition states what will be observed.

Stage 2: Specify an Observable Event

• Determines what specific questions will be asked to collect information

Identify Level of Measurement

• There are four levels of measurement:
• nominal
• ordinal
• interval
• ratio

Nominal

• occurs when the goal is the classification of a characteristic/attribute
• common in observational or behavioral data collection
• Categories in nominal measurement are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive. This means that every level of the characteristic fits into only one category and each characteristic fits somewhere
• numbers are assigned to categories/responses, but they are simply labels
• all objects/people are assumed to be the same

Ordinal

• arranges characteristics or attributes in an ordered relationship to some degree of magnitude
• a number represents an object's ranking among other objects
• relative standing - total extent of an ordinal measure's interpretive value
• relative distance - the degree to which one object ranks from the other
• on the ordinal level of measurement numbers only represent a place in an ordered array

Interval

• Advanced form of ordinal measurement
• allows you to determine both the relative ranking of objects and the distance between the objects
• interval scales do not have an absolute 0 point and as a result you cannot possibly make a statement about how many times higher one score is from another

Ratio

• the highest level of measurement
• have equal distances and a meaningful 0 point
• a common form of ratio measurement is the constant sum scale
• (a respondent distributes an allotted amount of points across a set of objects)
• ratio level measurements are common for research that focuses on respondent behaviors

Identify Question Type

• once concepts are identified and level of measurement determined, specific questions are written to collect the information
• open-ended questions:
• respondents answer in their own words without influence
• provide context to interpreting an individual's responses to closed-end questions
• a good way to introduce a topic area
• tend to be easier to write than closed-end questions
• unaided responses
• Closed-end questions:
• produce less variability in range of response
• easier for respondent to answer
• quicker to administer
• easier to analyze
• only should be used when all options are present
• aided responses

Stage 3: Evaluate and Revise the Event

• pilot research should be conducted in order to assess the reliability and validity of any untested measures
• Reliability: the extent to which the survey produces the same results consistently
• Validity: the extent to which the survey actually measures what it is intended to measure
• both are independent but related aspects of measurement

Assessing Reliability

• Test-retest reliability is a common way to assess reliability
• obtained by surveying the same group of people under equivalent conditions
• second alternative is to administer a second but similar test
• if internal consistency is examined, reliability is valid

Assessing Validity

• validity only occurs when there is a high degree of correspondence between a concept's operational definition and the specific observable event used to record the concept.
• Face Validity is the most basic form, means all parties are in consensus
• Concurrent validity is assessed by comparing a new measurement with an alternative at the same point in time
• Predictive validity estimated by determining the extent to which performance on one variable predicts performance on another variable (take the SAT for example)

In Conclusion

• Measurement is the way the abstract is linked to the observable
• Three stages:
• Identify and define the concept of interest
• specify an observable event
• evaluate and revise
• Level of measurement is determined by the level of detail needed
• data at higher levels is less limiting
• data collected at higher levels can be grouped together and downgraded
• higher levels can be more thoroughly analyzed

Hope this Helps!

• :)