Measurement and Scaling

Measurement
The assignment of numbers or other symbols to characteristics of objects according to certain prespecified rules. Thus we do not measure consumers- only their perceptions, attitudes, preferences or other relevant characteristics. Usually numbers are assigned- it permits statistical analysis. It permits communication of measurement rules and results. The assignment process must be isomorphic. There must be one-toone correspondence b/w the numbers and characteristics. For eg:- same dollar figures are assigned to households with identical annual incomes. Rules for assigning numbers should be standardized and applied uniformly.

Scaling
The generation of continuum upon which measured objects are located. It is an extension of measurement. For eg:- consider a scale from 1 to 100 for consumers acc to the characteristic attitude towards department stores. It represents the degree of favourableness and unfavourableness. Measurement is the actual assignment of numbers from 1 to 100 to each respondent. Scaling is the process of placing the respondents on a continuum with respect to their attitude toward department stores.

Scale characteristics and levels of measurement

Characteristics

1. 2. 3. 4.

Description Order Distance Origin Together they define the level of measurement

 Description :- the unique labels or descriptors that are used to designate each value of the scale. All scales possess description. Eg:- 1.female,2. male; 1= strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3= neither agree nor disagree, 4= agree, 5= strongly disagree Order:- the relative sizes and positions of descriptors. Order is denoted by descriptors such as greater than, less than and equal to. There is no absolute values associated with the order, only relative values. For eg:a respondents preference for three brands athletic shoes is expressed by the following order with the most preferred brand being listed first and the least preferred brand last.

Nike Reebok Addidas Preference for Nike is greater than the preference for Reebok. Respondents who check the same age category, say 35 to 49, are considered to be equal to each other, and greater than respondents in the 20 to 34 age group. Gender scale does not possess order. Distance:- the absolute differences b/w the scale descriptors are known and may be expressed in units. For eg:- a five- person household has one person more than a four-person household. The scale that has distance also has order.

 Origin:- it means the scale has unique or fixed beginning or true zero point. For eg:- an exact measurement of income by a scale such as : what is the annual income of our household before taxes? $______________ has a fixed origin or true zero point. An answer of zero would mean that a household has no income. A scale that has origin has also distance, order and description. Many scales do not have fixed origin or a true zero point. For eg:-agreedisagree scale. It can be assigned arbitrary origin as 0, 1 , -2 etc.

Note:- description, order, distance and origin represents higher-level characteristics, with origin being the highest-level characteristic. Description is the most basic characteristics that is present in all scales.

Primary scales of measurement

There are four scales of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio. Nominal Scale A scale whose numbers serve only as labels or tags for identifying and classifying objects. When used for identification, there is a strict one-to-one correspondence b/w the numbers and the objects. These possess only description characteristic. For eg:- nominal scales are used for identifying respondents, brands, attributes, stores etc. It also serves as labels for classes or categories. You might classify the control group as Group1 and the experimental group as Group2.

Ordinal Scale In this scale numbers are assigned to objects to indicate the relative extent to which some characteristic is possessed.. Thus it is possible to determine whether an object has more or less of a characteristic than some other object. These scales possess description and order characteristics but do not possess distance or origin.

Interval Scale A scale in which numbers are used to rate objects such that numerically equal distances on the scale represent equal distances in the characteristic being measured. The difference b/w 1 and 2 is the same as the as the difference b/w 2 and 3; 5 and 6. the distance b/w descriptors is known. Zero point and units of measurement are arbitrary.

Ratio Scale
It is the highest scale. It allows the researcher to identify or classify objects, rank-order the objects and compare intervals or differences. It is also meaningful to compute ratios of scale values. It possess all the properties of the nominal, ordinal, and interval scales, and in addition, an absolute zero point. Thus it possess the characteristic of origin