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Chapter 6: Developing Measures Overview In quantitative research, developing measures for variables is an important part of preparing a research design. This chapter describes the steps involved. You will also learn about different levels of measurement and the requirements for developing measures that the scientific community will accept as sound. In addition, this chapter discusses some ethical issues that may arise during the course of research. Ordinarily, when we think of measuring something, we think of its length, height, weight, or speed. Social scientists also use measurement in describing the social characteristics they investigate. To mention just a few studies, measurements in the form of numbers was used to describe:
Measuring a variable numerically has several advantages. First of all, with numerically measured variables, the variable can be expressed precisely. An investigation into ages at marriage among males and females in northern Sudan (Abdelrahman, 1989), illustrates this point. He compared ages at marriage for males and females for the year 1973 with those in 1979. Instead of saying that "an increase" had occurred, Abdelrahman indicated precisely how much older persons were at marriage in 1978/79 compared with 1973. To be precise, the average age for females increased from 18.6 in 1973 to 21.3 in 1978/79. The corresponding change for males was from 25.5 to 27.9. Second, with numerical data, summary measures, such as averages, percentages or other statistics can be used to summarize a large set of data. This greatly simplifies analysis and interpretation of results. Thus, Abdelrahman could confidently conclude that ages at marriage had increased substantially in the time period observed. A third advantage in using numerical data is that we can use statistical measures to express the strength of relationships among variables. This is a powerful tool in analyzing data, as we show in Part 4 of this book. Steps in measurement Two main steps are involved in developing measures for any concept. First, the investigator has to specify clearly how a concept is defined. This process is known as conceptualization. Second, ways of measuring concepts and variables have to be developed. This related process is called operationalization. Conceptualization Concepts frequently have more than one meaning or definition. Personality, for example, is defined in dozens of ways. Bureaucracy and many other social science concepts also have multiple meanings. Therefore, when concepts are used, researchers have to define concepts and show how they are being used in a particular research setting. You might think that the meaning of the concept of "job satisfaction" is clear: Are workers satisfied with their work or not? In conceptualizing job satisfaction, Mulinge and Mueller (1998), however, identified two components or dimensions of job satisfaction. Based on data from agricultural workers in Kenya, they differentiated between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards of work. Intrinsic rewards included the satisfaction gained from learning new skills, doing challenging work, having an opportunity to be creative, and other human satisfactions of the job. Extrinsic rewards were associated with the conditions of work, such as how easy it is to get to the place of work, having good hours for work, the pay received, and relative comfort during working hours. Mulinge and Mueller found different levels of satisfaction, depending on how workers felt about the relative balance of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards of their jobs. |