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Measurement
Measurement may be defined as the set of rules for transforming behaviors into categories or numbers. Constructing an instrument to measure a social science variable involves several steps, including conceptualizing the behaviors that operationally define the variable, drafting items that indicate the behaviors, administering draft items to try out samples, refining the instrument based on item analysis, and performing reliability and validity studies. These studies are necessary to ensure that scores on the instrument are consistent and have evidence of adequately representing a construct. Two theoretical approaches dominate the field of measurement: classical test theory and item response theory.
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