CHAPTER 6
Indexes, Scales, and Typologies
Indexes versus Scales
Commonalities
Both scales and indexes are ordinal measures of variables
Both scales and indexes are composite measures of variables: measurements based on more than one
data item
Differences
Index – a type of composite measure that summarizes and rank-orders several specific observations
and represents some more general dimensions
Scale – a type of composite measure composed of several items that have a logical or empirical
structure among them
Indexes versus Scales
Both indexes and scales seek to measure variables such as political activism. Whereas indexes count the
number of indicators of the variable, scales take account of the differing intensities of those indicators.
Indexes versus Scales
Index Construction
Examination of Empirical Relationships
An empirical relationship is established when respondents’ answers to one question help us predict how
they will answer other questions
Bivariate Relationship – a relationship between two variables
Multivariate Relationship – a relationship between more than two variables
Index Scoring
There are two basic decisions to be made in this step:
1. Decide the desirable range of the index scores
Concerns the conflicting desire for (a) a range of measurement in the index and (b)
an adequate number of cases at each point in the index
2. the actual assignment of scores for each particular response; determine whether to give
each item in the index equal or different weights
Standard: items should be weighted equally unless there are compelling reasons for
differential weighting
Index Construction
Handling Missing Data
Regardless of your data-collection method, you will frequently face the problem of missing data
If there are few cases with missing data, you may decide to exclude them from the
construction of the index and analyses
Treat missing data as one of the available responses
Analyze the missing data to interpret their meaning
Assign the middle value to cases with missing data
Assign values using proportions based on what is observed
Index Validation
Item Analysis – an assessment of whether each item included in a composite measure makes an
independent contribution or merely duplicates the contribution of other items in the measure
External Validation – the process of testing the validity of a measure, such as an index or score,
by examining its relationship to other presumed indicators of the same variable
Scale Construction
Likert Scaling
Likert Scaling – a type of composite measure designed to improve the levels of measurement in social
research through the use of standardized response categories to determine the relative intensity of
different items
Likert items are those using such response categories as “strongly agree,” “agree,” “disagree,” and
“strongly disagree”
Guttman Scaling
Guttman Scale – type of composite measure used to summarize several discrete observations and to
represent some more-general variable
Scale Construction
Semantic Differential
Semantic Differential – a questionnaire format in which the respondent is asked to rate something in
terms of two opposite adjectives.
Examples: rate textbooks as “boring” or “exciting”, using qualifiers such as “very,” “somewhat,”
“neither,” “somewhat,” and “very” to bridge the distance between the two opposites