MARK4441-Chapter9-Measurment and Scaling, Comparative

Measurement

The assignment of numbers or other symbols to characteristics of objects being measured, according to predetermined rules.

Reasons of Assigning Numbers

Permit statistical analysis of the generated data, help communicate information about the results.

Scaling

A part of measurement. It places the objects being measured along a continuum.

Scale Characteristics

Description, order, distance, origin

Description

It refers to the unique labels or descriptors that are used to designate each value of the scale. All scales possess description.

Order

It refers to the relative sizes or positions of the descriptors. It is denoted by descriptors such as greater than, less than, and equal to. No absolute values are associated with it.

Distance

The absolute differences between the scale descriptors are known and can be expressed in units.

Origin

It means that the scale has a unique or fixed beginning or true zero point.

Primary Scales

Nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio

Nominal Scale

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.

Interval Scale

Numerically equal distances represent equal values in the characteristic being measured.

Ratio Scale

The highest level of measurement. It possesses all the properties of the nominal, ordinal, and interval scales. it is meaningful to compute ratios of scale values.

Comparative Scale

It is a scaling technique with direct comparison of stimulus objects with one another. It includes paired comparison, rank order, and constant sum.

Paired Comparison Scaling

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.

Rank Order Scaling

Respondents are presented with several objects simultaneously and asked to order or rank them according to some criterion.

Constant Sum Scaling

Respondents are required to allocate a constant sum of units among a set of stimulus objects with respect to some criterion.