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CHAPTER 7 QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE MEASUREMENT

ABLE 7.3 Example of Levels of Measurement

ARIABLE (Level

f Measurement) HOW VARIABLE MEASURED

eligion Different religious denominations (Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran,

nominal) Baptist) are not ranked, just different (unless one belief is

conceptualized as closer to heaven).

ttendance "How often do you attend religious services? (0) Never, (1) less

rdinal) than once a year, (3) several times a year, (4) about once a month,

(5) two or three times a week, or (8) several times a week?" This

might have been measured at a ratio level if the exact number of

times a person attended was asked instead.

0 Score Most intelligence tests are organized with 100 as average, middle,

nterval) or normal. Scores higher or lower indicate distance from the

average. Someone with a score of 115 has somewhat aboveaverage measured intelligence for people who took the test, while

90 is slightly below. Scores of below 65 or above 140 are rare.

ge Age is measured by years of age. There is a true zero (birth). Note

atio) that a 40-year-old has lived twice as long as a 20-year-old.

175

pecialized Measures: Scales and Indexes

n this last section of this chapter, we will look at aumber of specialized measures, including scales

nd indexes. Researchers have created thousands of

ifferent scales and indexes to measure social vari-

bles.16 For example, scales and indexes have been

eveloped to measure the degree of formalization

n bureaucratic organizations, the prestige of occu-

ations, the adjustment of people to a marriage, the

ntensity of group interaction, the level of social ac-

vity in a community, the degree to which a state'sexual assault laws reflect feminist values, and the

vel of socioeconomic development of a nation. I

annot discuss the thousands of scales and indexes.

nstead, I will focus on principles of scale and index

onstruction and explore some major types.

Keep two things in mind. First, virtually every

ocial phenomenon can be measured. Some con-

ructs can be measured directly and produce pre-

se numerical values (e.g., family income). Otheronstructs require the use of surrogates or proxies

hat indirectly measure a variable and may not be as

recise (e.g., predisposition tocommit a crime). Sec-

nd, a lot can be learned from measures used by

ther researchers. You are fortunate to have the work

thousands of researchers to draw on. It is not al-

ways necessary to start from scratch. You can use a

past scale or index, or you can modify it for your own

purposes. Grosof and Sardy (1985:163) have warned

that creating rating scales and attitude measures "is

a particularly difficult and delicate enterprise and re-

quires a great deal of careful thought." The process

of creating measures for a construct evolves over

time. Measurement is an ongoing process with con-

stant change; new concepts are developed, theoreti-

cal definitions are refined, and scales or indexes that

measure old or new constructs are improved.

Indexes and Scales. You might find the terms

index and scale confusing because they are often

used interchangeably. One researcher's scale is an-

other's index. Both produce ordinal- or interval-level

measures of a variable. To add to the confusion, scale

and index techniques can be combined in one mea-

sure. Scales and indexes give a researcher more in-formation about variables and make it possible 'to

assess the quality of measurentent.' Scales and in-

dexes increase reliability and validity, and they aid

in data reduction; that is, they Condense and simplify

the information that is collected (see Box 7.2).

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