Chapter 6: Indexes, Scales, and Typologies

Question 1

A type of composite measure that summarizes and rank-orders several specific observations and represents some more-general dimension.

Answer 1

Index

Question 2

A type of composite measure composed of several items that have a logical or empirical structure among them. Bogardus social distance, Guttman, Likert, and Thurstone are examples.

Answer 2

Scale

Question 3

Which is superior–a scale or an index?

Answer 3

Scales because they take into consideration the intensity with which different items reflect the variable being measured.

Question 4

What are the four main steps in constructing an index?

Answer 4

(1) Selecting possible items, (2) Examining their empirical relationships, (3) Scoring and validating an index, (4) Handling missing data

Question 5

What is face validity?

Answer 5

A step in item selection for an index: Measures should appear on their face to indicate what you are trying to measure.

Question 6

What is undimentionality?

Answer 6

A step in item selection for an index: A composite measure should represent only one dimension of a concept.

Question 7

What is general or specific?

Answer 7

A step in item selection for an index: Are you trying to measure something generally or specifically and how does your measure line up with that?

Question 8

What are the options to account for variance when creating an index?

Answer 8

(1) Select serveral items that generate responses that divide people equally in terms of the variable, (2) Select items differing in variance–needed for creating a scale

Question 9

What establishes an empirical relationship?

Answer 9

When a respondents answers to one question help us predict how they will answer other questions.

Question 10

What is a bivariate relationship?

Answer 10

A relationship between two variables

Question 11

What are the two types of empirical relationships?

Answer 11

Bivariate and multivariate

Question 12

What is a multivariate relationship?

Answer 12

A relationship between more than two variables

Question 13

An assessment of whether each of the items included in a composite measure makes an independent contribution or merely duplicates the contribution of other items in the measure.

Answer 13

Item Analysis

Question 14

The process of testing the validity of a measure, such as an index or scale, by examining its relationship to other presumed indicators of the same variable. If the index really measures prejudice, for example, it should correlate with other indicators of prejudice.

Answer 14

External Validation

Question 15

A measurement technique for demtermining the willingness of people to participate in social relations–of varying degrees of closeness–with other kinds of people. It is an especially efficient technique in that one can summarize several discrete answers without losing any of the original details of the data.

Answer 15

Bogardus Social Distance Scale

Question 16

A type of composit measure, constructed in accordance with the weights assigned by “judges” to various indicators of some variables.

Answer 16

Thurstone Scale

Question 17

A type of composite measure developed by Rennis Likert in an attempt to improve the levels of measurement in social research through the use of standardized response categories in survey questionnaires to determine the relative intsnity of different times. Liker items are those using such response categories as “strongly agree,” “agree,” “disagree,” and “strongly disagree.” Such items may be used in the construction of true Likert scales as well as other types of composite measures.

Answer 17

Likert Scale

Question 18

A questionnaire format in which the respondent is asked to rate something in terms of two, opposite adjectives (e.g. rate textbooks as “boring” or “exciting”), using qualifiers such as “very,” “somewhat,” “neither,” “somewhat” and “very” to bridge the distance between two opposites.

Answer 18

Semantic Differential

Question 19

A type of composite measure used to summarize several discrete observations and to represent some more-general variable.

Answer 19

Guttman Scale

Question 20

The classification (typically nominal) of observations in terms of their attributes on two or more variables. The classification of newspapers as liberal-urban, liberal, rural, conservative-urban, or conservative-rural would be an example.

Answer 20

Typology

Question 21

What two desires will you hve to find a medium between when creating an index score?

Answer 21

(1) The range of measurement, and (2) an adequate number of cases at each point of the index

Question 22

What are two decisions you need to make when creating an index score?

Answer 22

(1) The desirable range of the index score, and (2) whether to give each item in the index equal weight or different weights

Question 23

What are some ways that you can deal with missing data when creating an index?

Answer 23

(1) If only a few cases have missing data, you can eliminate them from your results, (2) Decide to score the missing data based on the omission (for example, if someone didn’t check yes, score it as a no), (3) carefully analyze the missing data which may lead to an interpretation of its meaning, (4) if the item has several possible values, assign the middle valeu

Question 24

In the Guttman Scale, what do you call the correct predictions or the percentage or original responses that toculd be reproduced by knowing the scale scores us to summarize them? = 1 - (number of errors/number of guesses)

Answer 24

Coefficient of Reproducibility

Question 25

For the Guttman Scale, what are the commonly used standards for the coefficient of reproducibility

Answer 25

90-95%