Introduction to Measurement
Measurement refers to the process of engaging numerals to events, objects, etc. according to certain rules.
Tyler (1963) defines “measurement as assignment of numerals, according to rules “
-It gives some quantitative meaning
-The investigator assigned numbers, not by his own choice but according to certain fixed and explicit rules.
-Rules are the procedures to transform qualities of attributes into numbers.
-Social science research follows a standardized procedure or mechanism, as is followed in the physical
sciences. When a scale is applied on a person, it gives us a number (or symbol) on his attitude, IQ,
interest, emotional stability, motivation, and so on. It follows, then, that a measurement operation is
always a standardized way of proceeding, which may or may not make use of mechanical devices or
stimuli, but which always results in classification of the objects measured into some non-overlapping
categorie labelled by numerals, or simply by symbols
-Like – to measure the extroversion trait of personality or the intelligence of a child. Obviously, in such
situation the rules would not be clear. For measuring any psychological, sociological and educational
attributes the rules are generally vague and less explicit.
