Chapter 10: Measurement and Attitude Scaling

Question 1

What are the four levels of scale measurement?

Answer 1

• Nominal
• Ordinal
• Interval
• Ratio

Question 2

What are Nominal Scales?

Answer 2

• Assign a value to an object for identification or classification puposes
• > value can but does not need to be a number
• > qualitative scale

Question 3

What are Ordinal Scales?

Answer 3

• Have nominal properties

- Include ranking scales

Question 4

What are Interval Scales?

Answer 4

• Have both nominal and ordinal properties
• Capture information about differences in quantities of a concept
• Do not exactly represent some phenomenon

Question 5

What are Ratio Scales?

Answer 5

• Represents the highest form of measurement
• > have all the properties of interval scales with the additional attribute of representing absolute quantities
• Represent absolute meaning
• Provide iconic measurement
• Zero means the absence of some concept

Question 6

What is Reliability?

Answer 6

• Indicator of a measure´s internal consistency
• Measure is reliable when different attempts at measuring something converge on the same result
• When the measuring process provides reproducible results, the measuring instrument is reliable

Question 7

What is Internal Consistency?

Answer 7

• Represents a measure´s homogenetiy

Question 8

What is the split-half method of checking reliability?

Answer 8

• Take half the items from the scale and checking them against the results from the other half
• The two scale halves should:
• > Correlate highly
• > Produce similar scores
• Coeffecient Alpha: Represents internal consistency by computing the average of all possible split-half reliabilities for a multiple item scale
• > Demonstrates whether or not the different items converge
• > Ranges in value from 0 (no consistency) to 1 (complete consistency)

Question 9

What is Test-Retest Reliability?

Answer 9

• Determines reliability
• Involves administering the same scale or measure to the same repondents at two seperate times to test for stability
• > if the measure is stable over time, the test, administered under the same conditions each time, should obtain similar results
• > represents a measure´s repeatability

Question 10

What is validity?

Answer 10

• Validity is the accuracy of a measure or the extent to which a score truthfully represents a concept
• > Does the measure really measure what it is supposed to measure?

Question 11

What is face (content) validity?

Answer 11

• Refers to the subjective agreement among professionals that a scale logically reflects the concept being measured

Question 12

What is criterion validity?

Answer 12

• Answers the question whether my measure correlated with measures of similar concepts or known quantities

Question 13

What are paired comparisons?

Answer 13

• Respondents are presented with two objects at a time and asked to pick one they prefer