1. Chapter Nine Measurement & Scaling

2. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 2 Chapter Objectives Identify the four levels of measurement under which numbers generated through a survey can be classified. Distinguish among attributes, behavioral variables, beliefs, and attitudes. List and describe five methods for inferring people's attitudes.

3. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 3 Chapter Objectives (Cont’d) Discuss the various dimensions on which rating scales can vary. Apply the formats of Likert, semantic- differential, and Stapel scales and discuss how data generated by these scales are analyzed and interpreted. Define validity, reliability, and sensitivity of a scale.

4. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 4 Harris Interactive: U.S.Based Survey Reputation Score of Top Ten Corporations

5. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 5 Reputation Workplace Environment Products and Services Emotional Appeal Financial Performance Social Responsibility Vision and Leadership Harris Interactive: U.S. Based Survey Six Dimensions of Reputation

6. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 6 20 Attributes of the Six Dimensions Measured Using a 7 Point Scale Emotional Appeal –Like –Respect –Trust Workplace Environment –Well managed –Appealing workplace –Employee Talent

7. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 7 20 Attributes of the Six Dimensions Measured Using a 7 Point Scale (Cont’d) Products and Services –Innovative –Strong brand –Quality – Value Social Responsibility –Citizenship –Environmental stewardship –Ethics

8. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 8 Six Dimensions and Its Scales Vision and Leadership –Clear values –Strong leadership –Inspiring vision Financial Performance –Growth prospects –Past results –Recognizes opportunities –Low risk

9. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 9 Measurement Measurement is “the assignment of numbers to observations [or responses] according to some set of rules”

10. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 10 Measurement Levels Nominal Ordinal Interval Ratio

11. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 11 Nominal-Scaled Responses Numbers forming a nominal scale are no more than labels used solely to identify different categories of responses Example: What is your sex? –Male –Female

12. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 12 Nominal-Scaled Responses (Cont’d) Which one of the following media influences your purchasing decisions the most? –Television –Radio –Newspapers –Magazines –Internet

13. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 13 Central Tendency– Mode The mode is the most frequent category - only statistics applicable to nominal variable

14. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 14 Ordinal-Scaled Responses An ordinal scale is more powerful than a nominal scale in that the numbers possess the property of rank order How long do you spend reading newspapers on a typical weekday? –Less than 5 minutes –5 minutes to less than 15 minutes –15 minutes to less than 30 minutes –30 minutes or more

15. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 15 Mode and Median The mode and the median are the most meaningful measures of central tendency for ordinal-scaled responses Median – the category in which the 50th percentile response falls when all responses are arranged from lowest to highest (or vice versa)

16. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 16 Response CategoryPercentage of Respondents Checking Category 140 225 3 410 Consider the following distribution of responses to the question about reading newspapers In this case, the mode is category 1, and the median is category 2.

17. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 17 Interval-Scaled Responses An interval scale has all the properties of an ordinal scale and the differences between the scale values can be meaningfully interpreted

18. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 18 Interval-Scaled Responses (Cont’d) (Please check the most appropriate category.) Will definitely not buy_____ (1) Extremely unlikely_____ (2) Unlikely_____ (3) Likely_____ (4) Extremely likely _____ (5) Will definitely buy_____ (6) How likely are you to buy a new automobile within the next six months?

19. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 19 Exhibit 9.1 Impact of Arbitrariness of an Interval Scale’s Starting Point

20. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 20 Ratio-Scaled Responses Ratio scales possess all the properties of an interval scale and the ratios of numbers on these scales have meaningful interpretations What is your annual income before taxes? $______ How far is your workplace from your home? _____ miles

21. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 21 Classes of Variables Attributes Behavior Beliefs Attitudes

22. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 22 Attitudes Attitudes are similar to beliefs, except that they also involve respondents’ evaluative judgments For instance, do respondents feel print advertisements for cigarettes should be banned?

23. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 23 Attitudes – Conceptually and Operationally A conceptual definition of attitude may be “a predisposition to respond favorably or unfavorably to a stimulus object” An operational definition of attitude refers to a person’s attitude towards a particular retail store that may be measured as the total of the person’s expressed degree of agreement, on a 5-point, “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” scale, with each of a set of 20 evaluative statements about various aspects of the retail store

24. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 24 Attitude Scaling Attitudes –Widely believed to be a key determinant of behavior –Can only be inferred and cannot be directly ascertained Measures in which inferences are drawn from – Observed overt behavior – Individual's reaction – Performance on objective tasks – Physiological reactions

25. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 25 Observing Overt Behavior Observation of overt behavior is useful when other attitude measurement methods are inconvenient or infeasible An observation study can be used to ascertain the attitudes of very young children toward a variety of toys

26. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 26 Analyzing Reactions to Partially Structured Stimuli Projective Techniques –The approach of analyzing reactions to partially structured stimuli involves asking respondents to react to or describe in some fashion, an incomplete, vague stimulus

27. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 27 Evaluating Performance on Objective Tasks To evaluate performance on objective tasks, respondents are asked to complete an ostensibly objective, well-defined task The nature of their performance is then analyzed to infer their attitudes

28. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 28 Monitoring Physiological Responses Monitoring physiological responses is based on the premise that a person's emotional reactions to a stimulus will be accompanied by corresponding involuntary physiological changes

29. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 29 Self-report Measurements of Attitudes This method involves asking respondents relatively direct questions concerning attitudes toward whatever is of interest to the researcher The questions are typically in the form of rating scales on which respondents check off appropriate positions that best reflect their feelings

30. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 30 Very Bad Very Good Graphic Formats A graphic rating scale presents a continuum, in the form of a straight line, along which a theoretically infinite number of ratings are possible Example: Indicate your overall opinion about eBay by placing a  mark at an appropriate position on the line below.

31. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 31 Itemized Formats Itemized rating scales have a set of distinct response categories Any suggestion of an attitude continuum underlying the categories is implicit They essentially take the form of the multiple- category questions

32. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 32 Comparative Assessments Comparative Rating Scale –Provides all respondents with a common frame of reference –Allows the researcher to be confident that all respondents are answering the same question

33. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 33 Non-comparative Assessments Non-comparative Rating Scale –Implicitly permits respondents to use any frame of reference or no frame of reference at all

34. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 34 Forced Response Choices A forced-choice scale does not give respondents the option of expressing a neutral or middle-ground attitude

35. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 35 Indicate your overall opinion about eBay by checking one of the following categories: Very Neither Bad Very Bad Bad nor Good Good Good [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 What is your overall rating of eBay in comparison with other auction sites? Much worse Worse About the same Better Much better ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) Forced Response Choices (Cont’d)

36. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 36 Non-forced Response Choices A non-forced-choice scale give respondents the option to express a neutral attitude

37. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 37 Indicate your overall opinion about eBay by placing a  mark in the category that best summarizes your feelings. Very Bad Good [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 What is your overall rating of eBay in comparison with other auction sites? Much worse Worse Better Much better ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) Non-forced Response Choices (Cont’d)

38. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 38 Balanced Response Choices A balanced scale is one that has an equal number of positive/favorable and negative/unfavorable response choices

39. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 39 Indicate your overall opinion about eBay by checking one of the following categories: Very Neither Bad Very Bad Bad nor Good Good Good [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 What is your overall rating of eBay in comparison with other auction sites? Much worse Worse About the same Better Much better ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) Balanced Response Choices (Cont’d)

40. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 40 Unbalanced Response Choices An unbalanced rating scale that can be used if respondents’ opinions about a subject are anticipated to be predominantly positive

41. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 41 Labeled Response Choices

42. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 42 Unlabeled Response Choices

43. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 43 Exhibit 9.2 Rating Scales with Picture Labels

44. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 44 Number of Scale Positions A scale with a large number of positions will not be meaningful if respondents are unable to make fine mental distinctions with respect to whatever is being measured More precise measurements should result as the number of scale positions increase

45. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 45 Paired Comparison Scale In each of the following pairs, which store do you think is better? (please check one online auction site within each pair) _______ Amazon or_______ eBay _______ eBay or_______ Yahoo! Auction _______ PriceLine.com or_______ eBay _______ eBay or_______ Ubid.com

46. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 46 Commonly Used Multiple-item Scales Likert Scale Semantic-Differential Scale Stapel Scale

47. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 47 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. ________ The auction site support system is confusing ________ The auction site is not careful with personal information ________ The auction site responds to complaints quickly ________ Agree ________ Strongly Agree ________ The auction site commission is reasonable ________ User registration is complex at this site ________ The online auction site contains an abundance of exhibits Neither Agree nor Disagree DisagreeStrongly Disagree Table 9.2 Likert Scale Items

48. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 48 Exhibit 9.3 Semantic-Differential Scale Items

49. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 49 Exhibit 9.4 Pictorial Profiles Based on Semantic-Differential Ratings

50. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 50 -5 -4 -3 -2 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 Confusing Support System Poor Protection of Personal Information Good Response to Complaints Low Commission Complex User Registration Abundanc e of Exhibits Table 9.3 Stapel Scale

51. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 51 Strengths Of Multiple-Item Scales Validity Content validity Construct validity Predictive validity Reliability Test-retest reliability Split-half reliability Sensitivity

52. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 52 Validity The validity of a scale is the extent to which it is a true reflection of the underlying variable it is attempting to measure

53. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 53 Content Validity Face validity or content validity is the extent to which the content of a measurement scale seems to tap all relevant facets of an issue that can influence respondents’ attitudes

54. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 54 Exhibit 9.5 Types of Equivalence

55. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 55 Construct Validity Construct Validity is the nature of the underlying variable or construct measured by the scale

56. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 56 Predictive Validity Predictive Validity refers to how well the attitude measure provided by the scale predicts some other variable or characteristic

57. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 57 Reliability Reliability measures how consistent or stable the ratings generated by the scale are likely to be

58. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 58 Test-Retest Reliability Test-Retest Reliability measures the stability of ratings over time and involves administering the scale to the same group of respondents at two different times

59. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 59 Split-Half Reliability Split-Half Reliability measures the degree of consistency across items within a scale and can only be assessed for multiple-item scales

60. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 | 60 Sensitivity Sensitivity focuses specifically on its ability to detect subtle differences in the attitudes being measured