Lecture-7

Measurement and Scaling

Techniques

Photo by Peter Ballis

Mohammad Jalal Uddin Sikder, PhD

Associate Professor
Department of Development Studies
Daffodil International University (DIU)
Lecture overview

The Measurement & Scaling Technique helps us

to :
 explain the concepts of measurement and
scaling,
 discuss four levels of measurement scales,
 classify and discuss different scaling
techniques, and
 select an appropriate attitude measurement
scale for our research problem.
 Introduction

 As we discussed earlier, the data consists of

quantitative variables, like price, income, sales
etc., and
 qualitative variables like knowledge,
performance , character etc.
 The qualitative information must be converted
into numerical form for further analysis. This is
possible through measurement and scaling
techniques.
 A common feature of survey based research is
to have respondent’s feelings, attitudes,
opinions, etc. in some measurable form.
 Measurement and Scaling

 Before we proceed further it will be worthwhile to understand the

following two terms: (a) Measurement, and (b) Scaling.
 a) Measurement: Measurement is the process of observing and
recording the observations that are collected as part of research. The
recording of the observations may be in terms of numbers or other
symbols to characteristics of objects according to certain prescribed
rules. The respondent’s, characteristics are feelings, attitudes,
opinions etc. The most important aspect of measurement is the
specification of rules for assigning numbers to characteristics. The
rules for assigning numbers should be standardized and applied
uniformly. This must not change over time or objects.
 b) Scaling: Scaling is the assignment of objects to numbers or
semantics according to a rule. In scaling, the objects are text
statements, usually statements of attitude, opinion, or feeling.
 Issues in Attitude Measurement

 When a researcher is interested in

measuring the attitudes, feelings or
opinions of respondents he/she should
be clear about the following:
a) What is to be measured?
b) Who is to be measured?
c) The choices available in data
collection techniques
Examples

 Consider an attitude scale from 1 to 100. Each

respondent is assigned a number from 1 to 100, with 1
= Extremely Unfavorable, and 100 = Extremely
Favorable. Measurement is the actual assignment of a
number from 1 to 100 to each respondent.
 Scaling is the process of placing the respondents on a
continuum with respect to their attitude toward
department stores
 Numbers are usually assigned for two reasons:
 First, numbers permit statistical analysis of the
resulting data
 Second, numbers facilitate the communication of
measurement rules and results
Levels of Measurement Scale

 The level of measurement refers to the

relationship among the values that are
assigned to the attributes, feelings or opinions
for a variable.
 Typically, there are four levels of
measurement scales or methods of assigning
numbers:
(a) Nominal scale,
(b) Ordinal scale,
(c) Interval scale, and
(d) Ratio scale.
Scale Characteristics Determine
the Level of Measurement

Scale Characteristics Determine the Level of

Measurement

o Description

o Order

o Distance

o Origin
Nominal Scale

 The 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.
 The numbers do not reflect the amount of
the characteristic possessed by the objects.
 The only permissible operation on the numbers
in a nominal scale is counting.
 Only a limited number of statistics, all of which
are based on frequency counts, are
permissible, e.g., percentages, and mode.
Nominal Scale: Example
Ordinal Scale

o A ranking scale in which numbers are assigned to

objects to indicate the relative extent to which the
objects possess some characteristic.

o Can determine whether an object has more or less of

a characteristic than some other object, but not how
much more or less.
o Any series of numbers can be assigned that
preserves the ordered relationships between the
objects.
o In addition to the counting operation allowable for
nominal scale data, ordinal scales permit the use of
statistics based on centiles, e.g., percentile, quartile,
median.
Ordinal Scale Example
 Interval Scale

o Numerically equal distances on the scale represent

equal values in the characteristic being measured.
o It permits comparison of the differences between
objects.
o The location of the zero point is not fixed. Both the
zero point and the units of measurement are arbitrary.
o Any positive linear transformation of the form y = a +
bx will preserve the properties of the scale.
o It is meaningful to take ratios of scale values.
o Statistical techniques that may be used include all of
those that can be applied to nominal and ordinal data,
and in addition the arithmetic mean, standard deviation,
and other statistics commonly used in marketing
research.
Interval Scale Example
 Ratio Scale

o Possesses all the properties of the

nominal, ordinal, and interval scales.
o It has an absolute zero point.
o It is meaningful to compute ratios of
scale values.
o Only proportionate transformations of the
form y = bx, where b is a positive
constant, are allowed.
o All statistical techniques can be applied
to ratio data.
Ratio Scale Example
Comparative Scale

 In comparative scaling, the respondent is asked

to compare one object with another.
 Comparative scale data must be interpreted in
relative terms and have only ordinal or rank
order properties.
 The comparative scales can further be divided
into the following four types of scaling
techniques:
(a) Paired Comparison Scale,
(b) Rank Order Scale,
(c) Constant Sum Scale, and
(d) Q-sort Scale.
Comparative Scale
Comparative Scale

 Rank Order Scale: This is another type of

comparative scaling technique in which
respondents are presented with several items
simultaneously and asked to rank them in the
order of priority.
 This is an ordinal scale that describes the
favoured and unfavoured objects, but does not
reveal the distance between the objects. The
resultant data in rank order is ordinal data. This
yields better results when direct comparison are
required between the given objects. The major
disadvantage of this technique is that only
ordinal data can be generated.
Comparative Scale
Comparative Scale

 Constant Sum Scale: In this scale, the respondents are

asked to allocate a constant sum of units such as points,
rupees, or chips among a set of stimulus objects with
respect to some criterion.
 For example, you may wish to determine how important
the attributes of price, fragrance, packaging, cleaning
power, and lather of a detergent are to consumers.
Respondents might be asked to divide a constant sum to
indicate the relative importance of the attributes.
 The advantage of this technique is saving time. However,
main disadvantages are the respondents may allocate
more or fewer points than those specified. The second
problem is respondents might be confused.
Comparative Scale
 Comparative Scale

 Q-Sort Scale: This is a comparative scale that

uses a rank order procedure to sort objects based
on similarity with respect to some criterion.
 The important characteristic of this methodology is
that it is more important to make comparisons
among different responses of a respondent than
the responses between different respondents.
Therefore, it is a comparative method of scaling
rather than an absolute rating scale.
 In this method the respondent is given statements
in a large number for describing the
characteristics of a product or a large number of
brands of a product.
Comparative Scale
Non-comparative scales

 In non-comparative scaling
respondents need only evaluate a
single object. Their evaluation is
independent of the other object which
the researcher is studying.
 The non-comparative scaling
techniques can be further divided into:
(a)Continuous Rating Scale, and
(b)Itemized Rating Scale.
Non-comparative scales
Non-comparative scales
 Non-comparative scales

 Itemized Rating Scales : Itemized rating scale is a

scale having numbers or brief descriptions
associated with each category.
 The categories are ordered in terms of scale
position and the respondents are required to select
one of the limited number of categories that best
describes the product, brand, company, or product
attribute being rated.
 Itemized rating scales are widely used in marketing
research. Itemised rating scales is further divided
into three parts, namely (a) Likert scale, (b)
Semantic Differential Scale, and (c) Stapel Scale.
Non-comparative scales
Non-comparative scales
Non-comparative scales
 Non-comparative scales

 The itemised rating scales can be in the

form of : (a) graphic, (b) verbal, or (c)
numeric as shown below :
 Likert Scale

 Likert, is extremely popular for measuring attitudes, because,

the method is simple to administer.
 With the Likert scale, the respondents indicate their own
attitudes by checking how strongly they agree or disagree with
carefully worded statements that range from very positive to
very negative towards the attitudinal object.
 Respondents generally choose from five alternatives (say
strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree,
strongly disagree).
 A Likert scale may include a number of items or statements.
 Disadvantage of Likert Scale is that it takes longer time to
complete than other itemised rating scales because
respondents have to read each statement.
 Despite the above disadvantages, this scale has several
advantages. It is easy to construct, administer and use.
Likert Scale
Staple Scale

 The Stapel scale was originally

developed to measure the direction and
intensity of an attitude simultaneously.
 Modern versions of the Stapel scale
place a single adjective as a substitute
for the Semantic differential when it is
difficult to create pairs of bipolar
adjectives.
 The modified Stapel scale places a
single adjective in the centre of an even
number of numerical Values.
Staple Scale
Selecting of an Appropriate
Scaling Techniques

 A number of issues decide the choice of scaling

technique. Some significant issues are:
 1) Problem Definition and Statistical Analysis,
 2) The Choice between Comparative and Non-
comparative Scales,
 3) Type of Category Labels,
 4) Number of Categories,
 5) Balanced versus Unbalanced Scale, and
 6) Forced versus Non-forced Categories
Conclusion

 There are four levels of measurements:

nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.
 The measurement scales, commonly used in
marketing research, can be divided into two
types; comparative and non-comparative
scales.
 A number of scaling techniques are available
for measurement of attitudes.
 There is no unique way that you can use to
select a particular scaling technique for your
research study.