9 Scales of Measurement
Textbook Chapters (or similar texts)
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Inquiry-based Activity: Courage the Cowardly Dog
Introduction: When looking at psychology textbooks, we rarely talk with students about the importance of how we measure variables. While variables such as height, weight, and age are quite simple to ponder and assess, many of the constructs we study as psychologists (e.g., memory, personality, intelligence) are less simple. In this activity, students will get the chance to understand this complexity first-hand by initially developing a scale, testing it, and then revising.
Question to pose to students: How do you measure courage?
Students form a hypothesis: On their own, students should come up with a way to assess courage. The parameters should be kept intentionally broad – students may come up with a series of multiple choice questions, an essay question, or something else. At this point, students should have diverse answers. They should also come up with an approximate way to score their questionnaires. For example, if students are coming up with questions that have numerical answers, what would a high vs. a low score indicate?
Students test their hypotheses: Students should next team up with small groups around them to build more comprehensive questionnaires. Instruct them that their questionnaires can be a combination of methods/types of questions, but that they should be their best effort to capture what “courage” means to them. If your students have discussed types of measurements already, have them classify their questions accordingly. Then, have students test their questionnaires on each other. Each group should test their questionnaires on at least two other groups, for an approximate total of 6-10 student answers. Finally, have students create brief “reports” of their samples – do the students they sampled seem to be courageous? Do people give similar answers, or is it easy to distinguish between people? Based on this reflection, give groups an opportunity to revise their questionnaires if they would like.
Do the students’ hypotheses hold up?: As a class, collect as many unique questions as you can. Depending on class size, it may be easiest to do this using a tool such as Padlet. The following discussion will depend upon the particular background/experience of your students. Possible topics include the importance of operational definitions (i.e., what do we mean when we say courage?), how researchers balance the need for quantitative data vs. the richer nature of qualitative data, bell curves, and how different types of scales affect the types of conclusions we can draw when doing research. By the end, students should have a better understanding of the steps that would be required to appropriately answer the question, “how do you measure courage?”
