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Complexities in Measurement

9 October, 2015 - 16:30

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  1. Define and provide examples for each of the four levels of measurement.
  2. Define the terms index and typology, and discuss an example of each.

You should now have some idea about how conceptualization and operationalization work, and you also know a bit about how to assess the quality of your measures. But measurement is sometimes a complex process, and some concepts are more complex than others. Measuring a person’s political party affiliation, for example, is less complex than measuring her or his sense of alienation. In this section we’ll consider some of these complexities in measurement. First, we’ll take a look at the various levels of measurement that exist, and then we’ll consider a couple of strategies for capturing the complexities of the concepts we wish to measure.