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CHAPTER
                8            MEASUREMENT OF

                             VARIABLES: OPERATIONAL


                             DEFINITION AND SCALES








                             TOPICS DISCUSSED

                             MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES
                             OPERATIONAL DEFINITION
                             • Dimensions and Elements of Concepts
                             • What an Operational Definition Is Not
                             THE FOUR TYPES OF SCALES
                             • Nominal
                             • Ordinal
                             • Interval
                             • Ratio
                             INTERNATIONAL DIMENSIONS OF OPERATIONAL DEFINITION
                               AND SCALING

                             CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

                             1. After completing Chapter 8, you should be able to operationally define
                               (or operationalize) concepts.
                             2. You should know the characteristics and power of the four types of scales—
                               nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.




                             Measurement of the variables in the theoretical framework is an integral part of
                             research and an important aspect of research design (see shaded portion in fig-
                             ure on next page). Unless the variables are measured in some way, we will not
                             be able to test our hypotheses and find answers to complex research issues. In
                             this chapter, we will discuss how variables lend themselves to measurement.


            HOW VARIABLES ARE MEASURED

                             Objects that can be physically measured by some calibrated instruments pose no
                             measurement problems. For example, the length and width of a rectangular

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