Psychological Measurement

• Measurement involves the use of certain devices or rules for

assigning numbers to objects or events (Stevens, 1946).
• The rules are the specific procedures used to transform qualities of
attributes into numbers (Lane, Raymond, & Haladyna, 2015).
• For example, to rate the quality of wines, wine tasters must use a
specific set of rules. They might rate the wine on a 10-point scale,
where 1 means extremely bad and 10 means extremely good. For a
taster to assign the numbers, the system of rules must be clearly
defined.
• A scale is a set of numbers (or other symbols) whose properties model
empirical properties of the objects to which the numbers are assigned.
 Properties of Scale
• Three important properties make scales of measurement different from one another:
• Magnitude: property of “moreness.” A scale has the property of magnitude if we can
say that a particular instance of the attribute represents more, less, or equal amounts of
the given quantity than does another instance. On height scale, John is taller than Fred,
then the scale has the property of magnitude.
• Equal intervals: if the difference between two points at any place on the scale has the
same meaning as the difference between two other points that differ by the same
number of scale units. For example, the difference between inch 2 and inch 4 on a ruler
represents the same quantity as the difference between inch 10 and inch 12: exactly 2
inches.
• An absolute 0: An absolute 0 is obtained when nothing of the property being measured
exists. For example, if you are measuring heart rate and observe that your patient has a
rate of 0 and has died, then you would conclude that there is no heart rate at all.
SCALES OF MEASUREMENT
The Nominal Scale
• These scales involve classification or categorization based on
one or more distinguishing characteristics, where all things
measured must be placed into mutually exclusive and
exhaustive categories.
• Examples of nominal scales include classifying people by
race, gender, or occupation.
• In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, each disorder listed in that manual are
classified and assigned its own number.
The Ordinal Scale
• In this scale, the classification and rank ordering of any
variable on some characteristic is permissible.
• The categories that make up an ordinal scale have different
names and are organized sequentially.
• In business and organizational settings, job applicants may
be rank-ordered according to their desirability for a position.
• In clinical settings, people on a waiting list for psychotherapy
may be rank-ordered according to their need for treatment.
Interval Scale
• Interval scales contain equal intervals between numbers.
Each unit on the scale is exactly equal to any other unit on
the scale. It helps to reached a level of measurement at
which it is possible to average a set of measurements and
obtain a meaningful results.
• Scores on many tests, such as tests of intelligence, are
analyzed statistically in ways appropriate for data at the
interval level of measurement.
• It contains no absolute zero point, IQ of 0 (something that is
not even possible, given the way most intelligence tests are
structured), that would not be an indication of zero (the
total absence of) intelligence.
Ratio Scales
• Ratio scales are quite common and include physical measures such as
height and weight, as well as variables such as reaction time or number
of errors on a test.
• A ratio scale of temperature would have the properties of the
Fahrenheit and Celsius scales but also include a meaningful 0 point.
• Ratio-level measurement is employed in some types of tests and test
items, perhaps most notably those involving assessment of neurological
functioning. One example is a test of hand grip, where the variable
measured is the amount of pressure a person can exert with one hand
• Timed Test –zero score
Assignment
• Summarize the uses of these scales of measurement in psychology.
Distribution of score
• A single test score means more if one relates it to other test
scores. A distribution of scores summarizes the scores for a
group of individuals. In testing, there are many ways to
record a distribution of scores.
Frequency Distribution
• It displays scores on a variable or a measure to reflect how frequently each value
was obtained. With a frequency distribution, one defines all the possible scores
and determines how many people obtained each of those scores.
• Skewness the nature and extent to which symmetry is absent.
• Frequency distribution can be;
1. Normal, 2. positive skewed, 3. negative skewed
1.Normal is a bell-shaped, smooth, mathematically defined curve that is highest at
its center.
2.A distribution has a positive skew when relatively few of the scores fall at the
high end of the distribution. Positively skewed examination results may indicate
that the test was too difficult.
3.A distribution has a negative skew when relatively few of the scores fall at the
low end of the distribution. Negatively skewed examination results may indicate
that the test was too easy.
Percentiles
• Percentiles are the specific scores or points within a distribution that
divide the total frequency for a set of observations into hundredths.
• Percentiles indicate the particular score, below which a defined
percentage of scores falls.
• For example, the 25th percentile is the number that 25% of the scores
are below. So someone having a percentile rank of 95% on a test
means that 95% of the test takers' scores were lower than theirs.
Example
• John scored at the 59th percentile on an exam.
• If john scored at the 59th percentile , this means that he scored better
than 59% of the people on the exam.
• So percentile indicate the percentage of scores that a given value is
higher or greater than.
 Measures of Central Tendency
• “A statistic that indicates the average or midmost score between the extreme
scores in a distribution.”
• Mean: most commonly used measure of central tendency that takes into
account the actual numerical value of every score, X = Σ (X/n)
• Mode: most frequently occurring score, The mode is useful in analyses of a
qualitative or verbal nature.
• Median: the middle score in a distribution, The median may be a
particularly useful measure of central tendency in cases where relatively
few scores fall at the high end of the distribution or relatively few scores
fall at the low end of the distribution.
 Measures of Variability
• Variability is an indication of how scores in a distribution are scattered or
dispersed. It measures How your data is spread on normal curve.
• Some measures of variability include the range, the interquartile range, the
semi-interquartile range, the average deviation, the standard deviation,
and the variance. The standard deviation is a very useful measure of
variation because each individual score’s distance from the mean of the
distribution is factored into its computation.
• The range of a distribution is equal to the difference between the highest
and the lowest scores. We could describe distribution B of Figure 3–3, for
example, as having a range of 20 if we knew that the highest score in this
distribution was 60 and the lowest score was 40 (60 − 40 = 20). With respect
to distribution A, if we knew that the lowest score was 0 and the highest
score was 100, the range would be equal to 100 − 0, or 100. As a descriptive
statistic of variation, the range provides a quick but gross description of
the spread of scores. When its value is based on extreme scores in a
distribution, the resulting description of variation may be understated or
overstated. it has limited use because of extreme scores.
The interquartile and semi-interquartile ranges A distribution of test
scores (or any other data, for that matter) can be divided into four parts
such that 25% of the test scores occur in each quarter. the dividing
points between the four quarters in the distribution are the quartiles.
There are three of them, respectively labeled Q1, Q2, and Q3. Note
that quartile refers to a specific point whereas quarter refers to an
interval.
The interquartile range is a measure of variability equal to the
difference between Q3 and Q1. Like the median, it is an ordinal
statistic.
A related measure of variability is the semi-interquartile range, which
is equal to the interquartile range divided by 2. In a perfectly
symmetrical distribution, Q1 and Q3 will be exactly the same distance
from the median.
The variance is a widely used measure in psychological research. To
make meaningful interpretations, the test-score distribution should be
approximately normal.
 Standard Scores
• a Standard score is a raw score that has been converted from
one scale to another scale. Why convert raw scores to standard
scores?
• With a standard score, the position of a test taker's performance
relative to other test takers is readily apparent. Like z-scores, t-
scores are also a conversion of individual scores into a standard form.
• A Z-score (zero plus or minus one scale)is the difference between a
score and the mean, divided by the standard deviation (Known SD of
Population). A z score results from the conversion of a raw score
into a number indicating how many standard deviation units
the raw score is below or above the mean of the distribution.
We’ll convert a raw score of 65 to a z score by using the formula

a raw score of 65 was found to be equal to a z score of +1.

• t-scores (T scores can be called a fifty plus or minus ten scale) are
used when you don't know the population standard deviation; You
make an estimate by using your sample. for example, a raw score that
fell exactly at 5 standard deviations below the mean would be equal
to a T score of 0, a raw score that fell at the mean would be equal to a
T of 50, and a raw score 5 standard deviations above the mean would
be equal to a T of 100.
Other Standard Scores Divided into nine units, the scale was christened a
stanine, a term that was a contraction of the words standard and nine.
• Stanine scoring may be familiar to many students from achievement
tests administered in elementary and secondary school, where test
scores are often represented as stanines.
• Stanines are different from other standard scores in that they take on
whole values from 1 to 9, which represent a range of performance
that is half of a standard deviation in width (Figure 3–8).
• The 5th stanine indicates performance in the average range, from
1/4 standard deviation below the mean to 1/4 standard deviation
above the mean, and captures the middle 20% of the scores in a
normal distribution.
• The 4th and 6th stanines are also 1/2 standard deviation wide and
capture the 17% of cases below and above (respectively) the 5th
stanine.
Correlation
• Correlation is an expression of the degree and direction of correspondence
between two things. A coefficient of correlation ( r ) expresses a linear
relationship between two (and only two) variables, usually continuous in
nature.
• A coefficient of correlation (or correlation coefficient ) is a number that
provides us with an index of the strength of the relationship between two
things. The coefficient of correlation is the numerical index that expresses this
relationship: It tells us the extent to which X and Y are “co-related.” The
meaning of a correlation coefficient is interpreted by its sign and
magnitude (between -1 and +1.).
Graphical Representation
Direction of Correlation
• Positive Correlation: If two variables simultaneously increase or
simultaneously decrease, then those two variables are said to be
positively (or directly) correlated. i.e. Exam prep and Grade, Motivation
and exam performance
• Negative Correlation: A negative (or inverse) correlation occurs when
one variable increases while the other variable decreases. i.e. age and
memory
• Zero Correlation: If a correlation is zero, then absolutely no relationship
exists between the two variables. The fractional correlation may be
extremely small but seldom “perfectly” zero. For example their is no
relationship between the amount of tea drunk and level of intelligence
Just to Think!!
• Can you name two variables that are perfectly correlated? How about
two psychological variables that are perfectly correlated?
• Could a correlation of zero between two variables also be considered
a “perfect” correlation? Can you name two variables that have a
correlation that is exactly zero?
Types of Correlation
• The Pearson product moment correlation, most commonly used to find the
correlation between two continuous variables. Continuous variables such as
height, weight, and intelligence can take on any values over a range of values.
But sometimes we want to find the correlations between variables scaled in
other ways.
• Spearman’s rho (rank-order correlation coefficient, a rank-difference
correlation coefficient) is a method of correlation for finding the association
between two sets of ranks. The rho coefficient (r) is easy to calculate and is
often used when the individuals in a sample can be ranked on two variables.
this coefficient of correlation is frequently used when the sample size is small
(fewer than 30 pairs of measurements) and especially when both sets of
measurements are in ordinal (or rank-order) form.
Some uses of Correlations
• Prediction: If there is a relationship between two variables, we can
make predictions about one from another.
• Validity: Concurrent validity (correlation between a new measure and
an established measure).
• Reliability: Test-retest reliability (are measures consistent).
• Inter-rater reliability (are observers consistent).
• Theory verification: Predictive validity.
Read Assignment
• Read the concept of Norms development in Psychological testing.
Thank You ☺