What Is Measurement?

The measure development process

concept
A conceptual definition describes a concept in terms of other concepts.
(Kerlinger, 1986; Nunnally, 1978)

An operational definition describes the operations that need to be performed to measure a concept.
The term construct is used to refer to a concept that is specifically defined for scientific study.

Conceptual and Operational Definitions

If constructs are too concrete, then they are not as useful for theoretical generalization,although their measurement may be more direct. If constructs are too abstract, their direct measurement is difficult, although such constructs can be used for developing mediumlevel constructs that are measurable.
Larger distances between the conceptual and

the operational have at least two implications:

1.measurement error. 2.the number of different ways in which something can be measured.

Concept vs Measurement

A measure of a concept is not the concept itself, but one of several possible errorfilled ways of measuring it.

Measurement Error
Type of Error

error is any deviation from thetruevalue.

random error
the error has no pattern to it and is inconsistent. Random error may reduce correlations between a measure and other variables.

systematic error
there is a consistent pattern. systematic error may increase or reduce correlations between two variables.

Two priorities in minimizing error

1.Consistency(reliable)
Measures that are relatively free of random

error are called reliable. reliability in measurement actually could have nothing to do with accuracy in measurement, because reliability relates only to consistency.

2.Accuracy(validity)
a measure is free of random and systematic

error.

SoSTSsSr
SO:Observe score() ST:True score()

Ss:Systematic error() Sr:Random effect() : :


PQ :

Q( ): Q P() : -Q -P:

:(2005)

Domain Delineation
This step involves explicating what the

construct is and is not.

The construct should be described in

different ways, in terms of what is included and what is not included by the domain. Such an approach is an effective way of clarifying a construct and distinguishing it from related constructs.

Ex. Happiness vs. Contentment, Bluntness vs. Honesty, and so on.

 A worthwhile approach to distinguishing related

constructs is to construct scenarios where different levels of each construct coexist. For instance, if happiness and contentment are two related constructs, constructing examples where different levels of happiness versus contentment coexist can serve to clarify the domain of each at a conceptual level as well, distinguishing a construct from what it is not and getting to the essence of it conceptually.
The process of moving between the conceptual

and the operational can clarify both.

Measure Design and Item Generation

A latent construct causes responses on items of

the measure. Generic recommendations to enable such interpretation include avoiding ambiguous, lengthy, complex or double-barreled items. Items also should not be worded to be extreme it should be noted that item generation is an iterative process that involves frequently traversing the pathways between the conceptual and the operational.

 The procedures discussed so far relate to

the content validity of a measure, that is, whether a measure adequately captures the content of a construct. indicators of reliability can be enhanced at the expense of content validity by representing one or a few aspects of the domain and by trivial redundancies among items. An extreme scenario here is, of course, repetition of the same item, which likely enhances reliability at the expense of validity.