Nature Of Measurement Measurement is directed toward variables. A variable is a concept that can take two or more values.

For example sex ( male, female), marital status (single, married, divorced, widowed, deserted), age, education, are variables. Variables can be dependent or independent. An independent variables causes changes in another variables. For instance, in a research study of Family status and scholastic achievement, the independent variables can be family status, and the dependent variables is scholastic achievement. Measurement involes categorising and/or assinging values to the variable in question, and can be diverse in nature and level of operation. Generally, measurement is quantitative or qualitative, with the former concentrating on numerical values and attributes and the latter referring to labels, names and qualities. Quantitative measurement on the other hand is a telatively common procedure in social research. It is belived to be more accurate, valid, reliable, and objective than qualitative measurement and relies basically on quantitative techniques.

Levels of Measurement Measurement can be performed at four levels, which vary among themselves in many ways, but especially with regard to the degree to which they match the characteristics of the realnumber system. The four levels of measurement and four corresponding scales are: the nominal, the ordinal, the interval, and the ratio level. Nominal level measurement shows the lowest and ratio level measurement the highest matching wth the real number system.

Nominal level measurement This is the simplest, the lowest and the most primitive type of measurement. At this level, measuremnt involves classification of event into categories that must be distinct, unidimensional, mutually exclusive, and exhaustive and the resulting scales are naming scales. Such a measure indicates that there is a difference among the categories considered. Such differences refer to nature but not to magnitude. Thus, dormitory no. 10 is not twice as large as dormitory no. 5. In a similar fashion, numbers assigned to categories have no mathematical meaning, are used only for indentification, and cannot be added, substracted, multipled, divided or otherwise manipulated mathematically. Classifying the respondent in categories such as male-female, remarried, widowed, is baesd on nominal measurement. Classifying respondent according to their places of birth, religious affiliation, political affiliation, car type and place of residence are addtional examples

Characteristic of this level of measurement is that: It involves nominal categories and is essentially a qualitative and a nonmathematical measurement; it actually names and classfies data into categories It does not have a zero point It cannot be ordered in a continuum of low-high It produce nominal or categorical data It assumes no equal units of measurement.

It must be noted that only statiscal measures designed for nominal data must be used. Ordinal level measurement Measurement at the ordinal level involves not only categorising elements into groups but also ordering data and ranking of variables in a continuum rangging according to magnitude, that is, from the lowest to the highest point (transitive relationship). Here, numbers offer more information since thay not only indicates differences between categories but they also rank them; however, they do not allow mathematically operation such as addition or subtraction. Characteristic of this levels of measurement is that: It refers to rank based on a clear order of magnitude of low and high signifying that some element have more values than others. The numbers have actual mathematical meaning as well as having identification properties It is essentially a quantitative measurement It shows a relative order of magnitude.

With regard to the last point, order of magnitude allows categories to be ranked (who is first, second, last) but does not indicates tha amount of difference between the groups (how much above or below a certain category are neighbouring categories). So the difference between the first and second may be between the categories are not necessarily equal. Examples of such forms of continuum employed in ordinal measurement are : ageyoungest, young, old, oldest. Size-smallest, small, big, biggest. School-poor, good, excellent. Class-low , middle, upper.

Interval level measurement This level of measurement, as well as demonstrating the properties of ordinal level measurement, provides information about the distance between the values, and contains equal intervals, ordering subject into one of them. This method allows the researcher to judge differences between repondents and to obtain more detailed information about the research topic. The characteristic of this level of measurement is that it includes equal units, and that it is essentially a quantitative measurement is that it includes equal units, differentiation and classification and also incorporating ordering, it specifies the numerical distance between the categories. In other words, interval measurement allows the reasearcher to determine whether two values are the same or different (as in nominal measurement), whether the one is greater or smaller than the other (as in ordinal measurement) and the degree of difference between them. Nevertheless, they do not have a true zero point, and if a zero is used, it is set arbitrarily, is done so far convenience and does not mean absence of the variable. For example, if the IQ of two students is 105 and 125 respectively, in nominal terms this means that they have a different IQ, in ordinal terms that the first student has a lower IQ than the second, and in interval terms, that the IQ of the second students is 20 points higher than that of the first student, but not, say, a fifth smarter than the other student. In mathematical terms, at this level numbers assigned to categories are used to count and ranl, but can also can be added to and subtracted from each other. This indicates that interval level measurement is superior to the other two. However, given that there is no true zero, they cannot be multipled or divided. Statistical measures for nominal, rank and interval data can be used. Examples of this types of measurement are degrees of temperature, calendar time (day, week, month) and IQ scores. Ratio level measurement measurement at this level includes all the attributes the other three forms offer, plus the option of an absolute true zero (0) as its lowest value, which in essence indicates absence of the variables in question. This allows the reasearcher to make statements about proportions and ratios, that is to relate one value to another. For instance, a comparison of speed of response of two student to a stimulus, say 10 seconds and 20 seconds, allows he researcher to concludes that the first is twice as fast as the second.

In the social science this level of measurement is employed mainly when measuring demographic variables. However, it is consider inappropriate for measuring attitudes and opinions. This is because having a 0 option in an attitude scale means no attitudes, or no opinion, given the nature of the research question, this is incorrect since even ststing that the respondent has no opinion is in itself an opinion. In term of mathematics, number arrived at though ratioi ordering indicate counting as well as ranking, and can also be added, subtracted, multipled or divided. As far as statistical tests as are concerned, measures, appropriate for all levels can be used. Validity Validity in quantitative research Attainment of validity is one of the basic principles of social research. Validity means the ability to produce findings that are in agreement with theorical or conceptual valuee. In other words to produce accurate the results and to measure waht is supposed to be measured. If an instrument employed to measure the extent of cheating in examination revealed that 32 percent of the student regularly cheat, the measure used has validity if the proportion of student who cheat is actually 32 percent. A valid measure produces true result that reflect the true situation and condition of the enviroment it is supposed to study. Empirical validation Empirical validation, is tests pragmatic or criterion validity. If an instrument, for instance, has produced results indicating that students involved in student union activities do better in thier exams, and if this is supported by available data, the instrument in question has pragmatic validity. Again, validity is assumed if the findings obtained through a measure are supported by already existing empirical evidence. In this case the validity is concurrent validity. Quite often the validity of a measure is checked by the degree to which predictions made by the result of this measure are supported by findings that appear later. Validity is then claimed if new data support the predictionof the measure in question. For example, if a study found that an eventual introduction of advance statistics into the social sciences degree would a result in a significant drop-out of ethnic students, and if this prediction in a meantime was found to be correct, the measure has validity. This is kwon as predictive validity.

Theoretical validation Theorical or conceptual is employed when empirical confirmation of validity is difficult or not possible. A measure is taken to have theoretical validity if its findings comply with the theorical principles of the diciplines, that is, if they do not contradict already established rules of the dicipline. There are several types of theoretical validity. Face validity An instrument has face validity if it seems to measure what it is expected to measure. For example, a questionnaire aimed at studying sex discrimination has face validity if its questions refer to discrimination due to sex. The standards of jugdement here are not based on empirical evidence, as it was in the case of the other type of validation, but on general theoretical standards and principles, and on the subjective judgement of the researcher. Content validity A measure is supposed to have content validity of it covers all possible aspects of the research topic. If a measure of alienation, for instance, does not include normlessness or powerlessness (two element generally considered to be important aspects of alienation) the researcher cannot claim content validity for this instrument. Scaling Scales are techniques employed by social scientist in the area of attitude measurement. They consist of a number of statements or questions and a set of response categories, related to a score. They place respondents in a continuum between very low (or negative), over a neutral, to a very high (or positive) position. Each item is chosen so that persons with different points of view on this item react to it in a different way. Scaling involves a high degree of operationalisation and allows researchers to measure complex issues. Furthermore, it enables researchers to summate values of several variables into one score and this with a relatively high degree of reliability. In general, it offers respondent a choice of picking their answers out of given sets of alternatives, which are established in a vaery careful but also a cumbersome way.

Reasons for using scale Scales are used for a number of reasons. Apart from general methodological motives, the following reasons is: High coverage scales help to cover all significant aspects of the concept High precision and reliability scales allow a high degree of percision and reliability. High comparability the use of scales permits comparisons between sets of data. Simplicity scales help to simplify collection and analysis of the data

The thurstone scale Description This scale was developed in the USA in the 1920s, it consist of items constructed with the aid of experts who are very closely related to the construction of the scale. It is employed mainly in the area of attitude measurement, and is developed through a cumbersome and demanding process as explained below. Construction The construction of the scale is as follows: Step 1 The researcher selects a number of relevent statements containing a set of response categories (agree, disagree) allowing respondents to express their attitudes to the issue in a question freely. Step 2 The statements are given to a number of judges, who are asked to order them on a continuum from 1 to 11, according the way they judge the statements.it in the opinion of the jugde the statement describes the most favourable attitudes to the study object, it is given the score 1; if it describes slightly less favourables attitudes, it is classified under score 2 and so on. In this way, each statement receives a score (1,2 etc) thar is according to the group in which it is classified (scale value of statement)

Close relatively by marriage Personal friend Neighbour Colleague at work Speaking acquaintance only Visitor to their country Person to be kept out of their country

Interpretation The result obtained through this procedure are evaluated as shown below: Compute the mean value for each group Rank each group according to the value of the mean. The higher the value, the greater the social distance, that is the lower the willingness to assume contacts with that group, and the stronger the negative prejudice and attitude to that group. Application This scale, although originally developed to measure distance among ethnic groups, can be equally successfully employed in other areas, for example in market research, and studies of race relations. One could, of instance, develop a range of questions related to a certain item (car, television set, record player, etc) that could best describe a persons intention and willingness to buy this item. For example, questions ranging from i will most certainly buy this product at the next opportunity to i will never buy such a thing in my life can be used to measure the degree of a persons readiness to purchase the item.