Chapter Summary

This chapter introduces the concept of levels of measurement in the form of nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio measurement; the concepts of reliability and validity and scales in the form of Likert-type and semantic differential scales.

Chapter Objectives

This chapter will help you:

• Discuss the concept of measurement and its use in communication research.
• Differentiate, with examples, nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio measurement.
• Explain the concepts of validity and reliability.
• Identify ways of assessing reliability.
• Identify ways of assessing validity.
• Compare and contrast, with examples, Likert and semantic differential scales.