Measurement, Scales and Attitudes

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Measurement, Scales and Attitudes
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Types of Scales

• Nominal - Identification only
• Ex (players numbers, male1 female0)
• Ordinal -Ranking
• Ex (grades?) SEI score
• Interval Ranks and distinguishes intervals
• Ex (temperature)
• Ratio absolute quantities
• Ex (weight, degrees Kelvin)

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You Try

• Which college is your major housed in?
• 1. CLS 2. CBA 3. SAH
• How many years old are you today?____years
• How much money did you spend on alcohol at the
  bars in the last 7 days?_____Dollars
• Or answer categories
• 1. 0-10 2. 11-20 3. 21

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Appropriate Statistical Analysis

• Scale matters.
• Usually

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Index Measures

• Conglomerates of questions
• Mapping multiple responses to a single metric
• Consumer Sentiment Index

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Good Measurement

• Reliable
• Valid
• Sensitive

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Wrong
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Validity-reliability bulls eye (Babbie, 1998)
Both valid reliable
Reliable, but invalid
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Reliability

• Degree to which measures are free from error
• Repeatability
• Test-Retest method- High correlation suggests
  stability/reliability
• Internal Consistency
• Split-half method- take results form even
  questions and compare to odd number questions
• Equivalent form- asking different but equivalent
  questions of a group, and comparing their answers
  on the separate questions

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Validity

• the ability to measure that which you intend to
  measure
• Reliability is a necessary condition for
  validity, not sufficient
• Example - if the scale always reads 5 pounds too
  much. It is reliable, but not a valid measure of
  weight.

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Types of Validity

• Content (Face) validity- agreement that a scale
  accurately measures that which it is intended to
• Criterion validity- the ability of a measure to
  correlate highly with another measure of the same
  construct
• Concurrent validity- measures made concurrently
• Predictive validity- correlates with future
  measure
• Construct validity- The ability of a measure to
  confirm a network of related hypothesis

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Sensitivity

• a measurements ability to measure variability in
  stimuli
• Without variability in response we have nothing
  of interest.
• We can classify but not understand or explain

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Attitude Measurement

• Attitude an enduring disposition which contains
  these components
• Affective (emotional)
• Cognitive (reason)
• Behavioral (action)
• Example (sexual identity)
• Hypothetical Construct

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Male Sex Behavior and Identification
Col1 exclusively male Col 2 both Col 3
exclusively female
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Male Sexual Attraction and Identification
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Concept Measurement

• Awareness measure of knowledge understanding
  familiarity
• Behavior measure of actions/choices that took
  place
• Motivation measure of why people behave as they
  do
• Opinion measure of belief or attitude
• Preference measure of likes/dislikes
• Desire measure of wants
• Interest measure of concerns/curiosities
• Intention measure of anticipated behavior
• Demographic measure of respondents
  characteristics 

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Methods of Measuring Attitudes

• Rating
• Likert Scale carefully constructed attitudinal
  measure which asks people for their agreement
  with a statement

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• Ranking
• Rank choices from most important to least
  important

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• Sorting
• Asks respondents to sort items/names into groups

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• Multiple Choice
• Provide alternative responses that R might
  choose.

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Most Appropriate?

• is ranking, sorting, rating, choice the best?
• should a monadic or comparative scale be used?
• what type of category labels should be used?
• how many categories are needed?
• should balanced or unbalanced be used?
• forced choice or non-forced choice?
• simple measure or index measure?

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Should a monadic or comparative scale be used?
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Monadic

• How satisfied are you with your current job?
• 1.Very satisfied 2. somewhat satisfied 3. not
  very satisfied

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Comparative

• Compared to your current job how much
  responsibility did you have at your last job?
• 1. More 2. About the same 3. Less

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How many categories are needed?
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Balanced versus Unbalanced

• Balanced
• How satisfied are you with your current cable
  service?
• 1. Very Satisfied 2. Somewhat Satisfied 3.
  Somewhat unsatisfied 4. Very unsatisfied

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• Unbalanced
• Same question as above, but answer categories
  are
• 1. Very Satisfied 2. Somewhat Satisfied 3.
  Somewhat unsatisfied

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Forced versus Unforced Choice

• Forced Choice-
• Does not allow the respondent to offer no
  opinion, which is different than a neutral opinion

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• Unforced Choice
• Allows respondents to opt out of providing an
  opinion.