Measurement An integrative process of determining the intensity (or amount) of information about constructs, concepts, or objects Object Refers

to any tangible item in a persons environment that can be clearly and easily identified through his or her senses. Construct A hypothetical variable made up of a set of component responses or behaviors that are thought to be related. Construct development An integrative process in which researchers determine what specific data should be collected for solving the defined research problem. Domain of observables The set of identifiable and measurable components associated with an abstract construct. .Operationalization Explaining a constructs meaning in measurement terms by specifying the activities or operations necessary to measure it. Four basic states of nature: State-of-being data (verifiable facts): The physical and/or demographic or socioeconomic characteristics of people, objects and organizations. State-of-mind data (mental thoughts/emotional feelings): The mental attributes or emotional feelings of people. State-of-Behavior Data (Past and Current Behaviors): A persons or organizations current observable or recorded actions or reactions. State-of-Intention Data (Planned Future Behaviors): A persons or organizations expressed plans of future behavior. Scale measurement The process of assigning descriptors to represent the range of possible responses to a question about a particular object or construct. Scale points Designated degrees of intensity assigned to the responses in a given questioning or observation

method. Scaling Properties Description and Examples Assignment property The employment of unique descriptors to identify an object in a set. Some examples: the use of numbers (10, 38, 44, 18, 23, etc.); the use of colors (red, blue, green, pink, etc.); yes and no responses to questions that identify objects into mutually exclusive groups. Order property Establishes relative magnitudes between the descriptors, creating hierarchical rankorder relationships among objects. Some examples: 1st place is better than a 4th-place finish; a 5-foot person is shorter than a 7-foot person; a regular customer purchases more often than a rare customer. Distance property Allows the researcher and respondent to identify, understand, and accurately express absolute differences between objects. Some examples: family A with six children living at home, compared to family B with three children at home, has three more children than family B; differences in income ranges or age categories. Origin property A unique scale descriptor that is designated as being a true natural zero or true state of nothing. Some examples: asking a respondent his or her weight or current age; the number of times one shops at a supermarket; or the market share of a specific brand of hand soap. Four Basic Levels of Scales: Nominal scale The type of scale in which the questions require respondents to provide only some type of descriptor as the raw response. Ordinal scale A scale that allows a respondent to express relative magnitude between the answers to a question. Interval scale A scale that demonstrates absolute differences between each scale point. Ratio scale A scale that allows the researcher not only to identify the absolute differences between each scale point but also to make comparisons between the raw responses. Intelligibility The degree to which the questions on a scale are understood by the respondents. Appropriateness of descriptors The extent to which the scale point elements match the data being sought. Discriminatory power The scales ability to significantly differentiate between the categorical scale responses. Scale reliability The extent to which a scale can produce the same measurement results in repeated trials. Test-retest A technique of measuring scale reliability by administering the same scale to the

same respondents at two different times or to two different samples of respondents under similar conditions. Equivalent form A technique to establish scale reliability by measuring and correlating the measures of two equivalent scaling instruments. Internal consistency The degree to which the various dimensions of a multidimensional construct correlate with the scale. Split-half test A technique used to evaluate the internal consistency of scale measurements that have multiple dimensions. Coefficient alpha A technique of taking the average of all possible split-half coefficients to measure the internal consistency of multidimensional scales. Measures of central tendency The basic sample statistics that are generated through analyzing raw data; these are the mode, the median, and the mean. Measures of dispersion The sample statistics that allow a researcher to report the diversity of the raw data collected from scale measurements; they are the frequency distribution, the range, and the estimated sample standard deviation.