MEASUREMENT: SCALING, RELIABILITY, VALIDITY
Now that we know the four different types of scales that can be used to measure operationally defined dimensions and elements of variables, it is necessary to examine the methods of scaling that is assigning number and symbols to elicit the attitudinal responses of subjects toward objects, events, or persons. There are two categories of attitudinal scales—the rating scale and the ranking scale. Rating scales have several responses categories and are used to elicit responses with regard to the object, event, or person studied. Ranking on the other hand, make comparisons between or among objects, events, or persons and elicit the preferred choices and ranking among them.
The following ratings are often used in organizational research:
Dichotomous scale
Category scale
Likert scale
Numerical scale
Semantic differential scale
Itemized rating scale
Fixed or constant sum rating scale
Staple scale
Graphic rating scale
Consensus scale
As mentioned ealier, ranking scales are used to tap preferences between two or among more objects or items (ordinal in nature) however, such ranking may not give definitive clues to some of the answers sought. Ranking scales include:
Paired comparisons
Forced choice
Comparative scale
RELIABILITY: the reliability of a measure indicates the extent to which it s without bias (error free) and hence ensures consistent measurement across time and across the various items in the instrument. In other words, the reliability of a measure is an indication of the stability and consistency with which the instrument measures the concept and helps to assess the “goodness” of a measure.
VALIDITY: this is concerned with the issues of authenticity of the cause-and-effect relationships (internal validity), and there generalizability to the external environment (external validity).several types of validity tests are used to test the goodness of measures and writers used different terms to denotes them. For the sake of clarity, we may group validity tests under three broad headings:
Content validity
Criterion-related validity
And, construct validity.
GOODNESS OF MEASURES: These involve the certainty that the instrument used in research do indeed measure the variables they are supposed to, and that they measure them accurately.
Endnote
Sekaran, Uma. (2003). Research methods for business: A skill-building approach.
(4th Ed.) Hoboken, N. J.: Wiley.
Now that we know the four different types of scales that can be used to measure operationally defined dimensions and elements of variables, it is necessary to examine the methods of scaling that is assigning number and symbols to elicit the attitudinal responses of subjects toward objects, events, or persons. There are two categories of attitudinal scales—the rating scale and the ranking scale. Rating scales have several responses categories and are used to elicit responses with regard to the object, event, or person studied. Ranking on the other hand, make comparisons between or among objects, events, or persons and elicit the preferred choices and ranking among them.
The following ratings are often used in organizational research:
Dichotomous scale
Category scale
Likert scale
Numerical scale
Semantic differential scale
Itemized rating scale
Fixed or constant sum rating scale
Staple scale
Graphic rating scale
Consensus scale
As mentioned ealier, ranking scales are used to tap preferences between two or among more objects or items (ordinal in nature) however, such ranking may not give definitive clues to some of the answers sought. Ranking scales include:
Paired comparisons
Forced choice
Comparative scale
RELIABILITY: the reliability of a measure indicates the extent to which it s without bias (error free) and hence ensures consistent measurement across time and across the various items in the instrument. In other words, the reliability of a measure is an indication of the stability and consistency with which the instrument measures the concept and helps to assess the “goodness” of a measure.
VALIDITY: this is concerned with the issues of authenticity of the cause-and-effect relationships (internal validity), and there generalizability to the external environment (external validity).several types of validity tests are used to test the goodness of measures and writers used different terms to denotes them. For the sake of clarity, we may group validity tests under three broad headings:
Content validity
Criterion-related validity
And, construct validity.
GOODNESS OF MEASURES: These involve the certainty that the instrument used in research do indeed measure the variables they are supposed to, and that they measure them accurately.
Endnote
Sekaran, Uma. (2003). Research methods for business: A skill-building approach.
(4th Ed.) Hoboken, N. J.: Wiley.
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