MEASUREMENT AND SCALING

Dr. Mitali Sen

Assistant Professor
Department of Management Studies
Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad

Introduction
Measurement
Common term come across in daily life
Process of assigning numbers to objects
or observations- under a function of
rules.
Physical properties of objects
(e.g.) weight, height
Abstract concepts
(e.g.) intelligence

Measurement of Physical Properties

Is of quantitative measurement
Measurement is of high accuracy
Has standard unit of measurement

Measurement of abstract
phenomena
Is of qualitative measurement
Not easy to measure
Less confidence about the accuracy
Complex and demanding task

 Technically speaking,
Measurement is a process of mapping
aspects of a domain onto other
aspects of a range according to some
rule of correspondence.

Consider the case

To find the male to female attendance
ratio- in some showaccording to
gender.
In terms of set theory,
Domain- those who are coming to show.
Range- gender classification.
Rule of correspondence is
If domain appears as maleassign 0
If female assign 1

Cont
Similarly if we record a persons marital
statusassign 1,2,3,4 as

Single
Married
Widowed
Divorced

We record Yes or No answers to questions

as 0 or 1(or as 1 and 2 or perhaps as 59
and 60)
We refer to the number we record as
Nominal data

Nominal data
Are numerical in name only
Do not share any properties of
numbersas we deal with ordinary
arithmetic.
As in marital status record 1,2,3,4
We cannot write as 4>2 or 3<4 and 3-1=43.

Ordinal data
Qualities expressed as numerical data
which can be used to setup only inequalities.
For eg in assigning number to express the
hardness of the minerals as from 1 to 10,
respectively to Talc, Gypsum,.to Diamond.
We can write as 5>2, or 6<9but cannot be
written as 10-9 = 5-4.
Greater than symbol (i.e.>), used to
designate happier than, preferred to.

Interval data
In addition to setting up inequalities,
can also form differences
In case of expressing the degree of
hotnesswe use Temperature.
For eg temp 1100C > 900C and the
diff 1100C 900C = 600C 400C.
It would not mean that 1260C is twice
the hot as 630C.

Ratio data
Can also form quotients in addition to
setting up inequalities and forming
differences.
It
includes
all
the
usual
measurements of length, height,
money amounts, weight, volume,
area, pressures, etc.

Scaling
Scaling involves creating a continuum upon which
measured objects are located.
Consider an attitude scale from 1 to 10. Each
respondent is assigned a number from 1 to 10, with 1
= Extremely Unfavorable, and 10 = Extremely
Favorable. Measurement is the actual assignment of
a number from 1 to 10 to each respondent. Scaling is
the process of placing the respondents on a
continuum with respect to their attitude.