Measurement and Scaling

Chapter Nine
Measurement &
Scaling
Copyright Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

9 | 2
Chapter Objectives
Identify the four levels of measurement
under which numbers generated through a
survey can be classified.
Distinguish among attributes, behavioral
variables, beliefs, and attitudes.
List and describe five methods for inferring
people's attitudes.

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Chapter Objectives (Contd)
Discuss the various dimensions on which
rating scales can vary.
Apply the formats of Likert, semantic-
differential, and Stapel scales and discuss
how data generated by these scales are
analyzed and interpreted.
Define validity, reliability, and sensitivity of a
scale.

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Harris Interactive:
U.S.Based Survey
Reputation Score of Top
Ten Corporations

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Reputation
Workplace
Environment
Products and
Services
Emotional Appeal
Financial
Performance
Social
Responsibility
Vision and
Leadership
Harris Interactive: U.S. Based Survey Six
Dimensions of Reputation

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20 Attributes of the Six Dimensions
Measured Using a 7 Point Scale
Emotional Appeal
Like
Respect
Trust
Workplace Environment
Well managed
Appealing workplace
Employee Talent

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20 Attributes of the Six Dimensions
Measured Using a 7 Point Scale (Contd)
Products and Services
Innovative
Strong brand
Quality
Value
Social Responsibility
Citizenship
Environmental stewardship
Ethics

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Six Dimensions and Its Scales
Vision and Leadership
Clear values
Strong leadership
Inspiring vision
Financial Performance
Growth prospects
Past results
Recognizes opportunities
Low risk

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Measurement
Measurement is the assignment of numbers
to observations [or responses] according to
some set of rules

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Measurement Levels
Nominal
Ordinal
Interval
Ratio

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Nominal-Scaled Responses
Numbers forming a nominal scale are no
more than labels used solely to identify
different categories of responses
Example: What is your sex?
Male
Female


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Nominal-Scaled Responses (Contd)
Which one of the following media influences
your purchasing decisions the most?
Television
Radio
Newspapers
Magazines
Internet


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Central Tendency Mode
The mode is the most frequent category -
only statistics applicable to nominal variable

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Ordinal-Scaled Responses
An ordinal scale is more powerful than a
nominal scale in that the numbers possess
the property of rank order
How long do you spend reading newspapers
on a typical weekday?
Less than 5 minutes
5 minutes to less than 15 minutes
15 minutes to less than 30 minutes
30 minutes or more

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Mode and Median
The mode and the median are the most
meaningful measures of central tendency for
ordinal-scaled responses
Median the category in which the 50th
percentile response falls when all responses
are arranged from lowest to highest (or vice
versa)

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Response Category Percentage of Respondents
Checking Category
1 40
2 25
3 25
4 10
Consider the following distribution of responses to
the question about reading newspapers
In this case, the mode is category 1, and the
median is category 2.


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Interval-Scaled Responses
An interval scale has all the properties of an
ordinal scale and the differences between the
scale values can be meaningfully interpreted

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Interval-Scaled Responses (Contd)

(Please check the most appropriate category.)
Will definitely not buy _____
(1)
Extremely unlikely _____
(2)
Unlikely _____
(3)
Likely _____
(4)
Extremely likely _____
(5)
Will definitely buy _____
(6)

How likely are you to buy a new automobile within the
next six months?

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Exhibit 9.1 Impact of Arbitrariness of an
Interval Scales Starting Point

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Ratio-Scaled Responses
Ratio scales possess all the properties of an
interval scale and the ratios of numbers on
these scales have meaningful interpretations
What is your annual income before taxes?
$______
How far is your workplace from your home?
_____ miles

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Classes of Variables
Attributes
Behavior
Beliefs
Attitudes


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Attitudes
Attitudes are similar to beliefs, except that
they also involve respondents evaluative
judgments
For instance, do respondents feel print
advertisements for cigarettes should be
banned?

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Attitudes
Conceptually and Operationally
A conceptual definition of attitude may be a
predisposition to respond favorably or unfavorably to
a stimulus object
An operational definition of attitude refers to a
persons attitude towards a particular retail store that
may be measured as the total of the persons
expressed degree of agreement, on a 5-point,
strongly agree to strongly disagree scale, with
each of a set of 20 evaluative statements about
various aspects of the retail store

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Attitude Scaling
Attitudes
Widely believed to be a key determinant of behavior
Can only be inferred and cannot be directly
ascertained
Measures in which inferences are drawn from
Observed overt behavior
Individual's reaction
Performance on objective tasks
Physiological reactions


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Observing Overt Behavior
Observation of overt behavior is useful when
other attitude measurement methods are
inconvenient or infeasible
An observation study can be used to
ascertain the attitudes of very young children
toward a variety of toys

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Analyzing Reactions to Partially
Structured Stimuli
Projective Techniques
The approach of analyzing reactions to
partially structured stimuli involves asking
respondents to react to or describe in some
fashion, an incomplete, vague stimulus


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Evaluating Performance on
Objective Tasks
To evaluate performance on objective tasks,
respondents are asked to complete an
ostensibly objective, well-defined task
The nature of their performance is then
analyzed to infer their attitudes


9 | 28
Monitoring Physiological Responses
Monitoring physiological responses is based
on the premise that a person's emotional
reactions to a stimulus will be accompanied
by corresponding involuntary physiological
changes

9 | 29
Self-report Measurements of Attitudes
This method involves asking respondents
relatively direct questions concerning
attitudes toward whatever is of interest to the
researcher
The questions are typically in the form of
rating scales on which respondents check off
appropriate positions that best reflect their
feelings

9 | 30
Very
Bad
Very
Good
Graphic Formats
A graphic rating scale presents a continuum,
in the form of a straight line, along which a
theoretically infinite number of ratings are
possible
Example: Indicate your overall opinion about
eBay by placing a mark at an appropriate
position on the line below.

9 | 31
Itemized Formats
Itemized rating scales have a set of distinct
response categories
Any suggestion of an attitude continuum
underlying the categories is implicit
They essentially take the form of the multiple-
category questions

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Comparative Assessments
Comparative Rating Scale
Provides all respondents with a common
frame of reference
Allows the researcher to be confident that all
respondents are answering the same question

9 | 33
Non-comparative Assessments
Non-comparative Rating Scale
Implicitly permits respondents to use any
frame of reference or no frame of
reference at all

9 | 34
Forced Response Choices
A forced-choice scale does not give
respondents the option of expressing a
neutral or middle-ground attitude

9 | 35
Indicate your overall opinion about eBay by checking one of the
following categories:

Very Neither Bad Very
Bad Bad nor Good Good Good
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

What is your overall rating of eBay in comparison with other
auction sites?

Much worse Worse About the same Better Much better
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

Forced Response Choices (Contd)

9 | 36
Non-forced Response Choices
A non-forced-choice scale give respondents
the option to express a neutral attitude

9 | 37
Indicate your overall opinion about eBay by placing a
mark in the category that best summarizes your feelings.

Very Very
Bad Good
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

auction sites?

Much worse Worse Better Much better
( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
Non-forced Response Choices (Contd)

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Balanced Response Choices
A balanced scale is one that has an equal
number of positive/favorable and
negative/unfavorable response choices

9 | 39
Indicate your overall opinion about eBay by checking one of the
following categories:

Very Neither Bad Very
Bad Bad nor Good Good Good
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

auction sites?

Much worse Worse About the same Better Much better
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
Balanced Response Choices (Contd)

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Unbalanced Response Choices
An unbalanced rating scale that can be used
if respondents opinions about a subject are
anticipated to be predominantly positive

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Labeled Response Choices

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Unlabeled Response Choices

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Exhibit 9.2 Rating Scales with
Picture Labels

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Number of Scale Positions
A scale with a large number of positions will
not be meaningful if respondents are unable
to make fine mental distinctions with respect
to whatever is being measured
More precise measurements should result as
the number of scale positions increase


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Paired Comparison Scale
In each of the following pairs, which store do you
think is better?
(please check one online auction site within each pair)

_______ Amazon or _______ eBay
_______ eBay or _______ Yahoo! Auction
_______ PriceLine.com or _______ eBay
_______ eBay or _______ Ubid.com


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Commonly Used Multiple-item Scales
Likert Scale
Semantic-Differential Scale
Stapel Scale


9 | 47
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.

________ ________ ________ ________ ________
The auction site support
system is confusing

________ ________ ________ ________ ________
The auction site is not
careful with personal information

________ ________ ________ ________ ________
The auction site responds
to complaints quickly

________

________

________
Agree

________

________

________
Strongly
Agree

________ ________ ________
The auction site commission
is reasonable

________ ________ ________
User registration
is complex at this site

________ ________ ________
The online auction site
contains an abundance of exhibits
Neither
Agree nor
Disagree
Disagree Strongly
Disagree
Table 9.2 Likert Scale Items

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Exhibit 9.3 Semantic-Differential
Scale Items

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Exhibit 9.4 Pictorial Profiles Based on
Semantic-Differential Ratings

9 | 50
-5 -5 -5 -5 -5 -5
-4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4
-3 -3 -3 -3 -3 -3
-2 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2
-1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
+1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1
+2 +2 +2 +2 +2 +2
+3 +3 +3 +3 +3 +3
+4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4
+5 +5 +5 +5 +5 +5
Confusing
Support
System
Poor
Protection
of Personal
Information
Good
Response
to
Complaints

Low
Commission
Complex
User
Registration
Abundanc
e of
Exhibits
Table 9.3 Stapel Scale

9 | 51
Strengths Of Multiple-Item Scales
Validity
Content validity
Construct validity
Predictive validity
Reliability
Test-retest reliability
Split-half reliability
Sensitivity

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Validity
The validity of a scale is the extent to which it
is a true reflection of the underlying variable it
is attempting to measure

9 | 53
Content Validity
Face validity or content validity is the extent
to which the content of a measurement scale
seems to tap all relevant facets of an issue
that can influence respondents attitudes

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Exhibit 9.5 Types of Equivalence

9 | 55
Construct Validity
Construct Validity is the nature of the
underlying variable or construct measured by
the scale

9 | 56
Predictive Validity
Predictive Validity refers to how well the
attitude measure provided by the scale
predicts some other variable or characteristic

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Reliability
Reliability measures how consistent or stable
the ratings generated by the scale are likely
to be

9 | 58
Test-Retest Reliability
Test-Retest Reliability measures the stability
of ratings over time and involves
administering the scale to the same group of
respondents at two different times

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Split-Half Reliability
Split-Half Reliability measures the degree of
consistency across items within a scale and
can only be assessed for multiple-item scales

9 | 60
Sensitivity
Sensitivity focuses specifically on its ability to
detect subtle differences in the attitudes
being measured

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