Scales are ordinal instruments that are intended to measure a single concept (i.e., adverse childhood experiences, depression, anxiety, attitudes about poverty, etc.). Scales may consist of a few items or dozens of items. This assignment is intended to provide you with a better understanding of the processes of scale development and the statistical techniques that are used to validate, refine, and describe various scales. Keep in mind, these statistical techniques are tools to assist in a decision-making process that is formally guided by theory and past empirical evidence – they are not substitutes for a thoughtful analytic process.
The Assignment:
1. Identify a well-established scale that has been used to measure your study’s dependent or outcome variable (i.e., Your Research Methods I proposal’s dependent variable).
2. What is the scale and how is it measured?
3. How would you use the scale to answer your dependent variable? (i.e., Please formulate a survey question for your dependent variable based on the scale measure)?