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Measurement Levels
Making decisions about how concepts and variables are measured is vital to social scientific inquiry. Measurement also bears great importance to communication researchers. This entry discusses the tenets of social scientific measurement, the four measurement levels (nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio), and what statistics are commonly associated with each level of measurement.
Measurement
In the physical sciences, measurement has been established as the process of assigning numbers to objects or observable events according to some formalized set of rules. This becomes troubling for communication researchers as they commonly seek to measure concepts and phenomena that are more abstract than objects and are not as easily observed as events. Many prominent communication phenomena fall into this troubling category, including media effects, nonverbal communication, media literacy, and health and ...
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- Online Communities
- Online Data, Collection and Interpretation of
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- Online Interviews
- Online Social Worlds
- Social Networks, Online
- Spam
- Measurement
- Correspondence Analysis
- Cutoff Scores
- Data Cleaning
- Data Reduction
- Data Trimming
- Facial Affect Coding System
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- Factor Analysis: Evolutionary
- Factor Analysis: Exploratory
- Factor Analysis: Internal Consistency
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- Factor Analysis: Rotated Matrix
- Factor Analysis: Varimax Rotation
- Factor Analysis-Oblique Rotation
- Implicit Measures
- Measurement Levels
- Measurement Levels, Interval
- Measurement Levels, Nominal/Categorical
- Measurement Levels, Ordinal
- Measurement Levels, Ratio
- Observational Measurement: Face Features
- Observational Measurement: Proxemics and Touch
- Observational Measurement: Vocal Qualities
- Organizational Identification
- Outlier Analysis
- Parsimony
- Physiological Measurement
- Physiological Measurement: Blood Pressure
- Physiological Measurement: Genital Blood Volume
- Physiological Measurement: Heart Rate
- Physiological Measurement: Pupillary Response
- Physiological Measurement: Skin Conductance
- Range
- Raw Score
- Reaction Time
- Reliability of Measurement
- Reliability, Cronbach’s Alpha
- Reliability, Knuder-Richardson
- Reliability, Split-half
- Scales, Forced Choice
- Scales, Likert Statement
- Scales, Open-Ended
- Scales, Rank Order
- Scales, Semantic Differential
- Scales, True/False
- Scaling, Guttman
- Standard Score
- Time Series Notation
- True Score
- Validity, Concurrent
- Validity, Construct
- Validity, Face and Content
- Validity, Halo Effect
- Validity, Measurement of
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- Variables, Conceptualization
- Variables, Operationalization
- Z Transformation
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- Survey: Demographic Questions
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- Survey: Multiple-Choice Questions
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- Survey: Structural Questions
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- Simple Bivariate Correlation
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- Data Transformation
- Errors of Measurement
- Errors of Measurement: Attenuation
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- Statistical Models
- Autoregressive, Integrative, Moving Average (ARIMA) Models
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- Meta-Analysis: Random Effects Analysis
- Meta-Analysis: Statistical Conversion to Common Metric
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- Multivariate Statistics
- Odds Ratio
- Ordinary Least Squares
- Path Analysis
- Probit Analysis
- Quasi-F
- Sobel Test
- Structural Equation Modeling
- Time-Series Analysis
- Analysis of Variance Approaches
- Understanding the Scope of Communication Research
- Areas of Inquiry
- Acculturation
- African American Communication and Culture
- Agenda Setting
- Applied Communication
- Argumentation Theory
- Asian/Pacific American Communication Studies
- Bad News, Communication of
- Basic Course in Communication
- Business Communication
- Communication and Aging Research
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- Corporate Communication
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- Development of Communication in Children
- Diaspora
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- Dime Dating
- Disability and Communication
- Distance Learning
- Educational Technology
- Emergency Communication
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- English as a Second Language
- Environmental Communication
- Family Communication
- Feminist Communication Studies
- Film Studies
- Financial Communication
- Freedom of Expression
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- Gender and Communication
- GeoMedia
- GLBT Communication Studies
- GLBT Social Media
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- Health Literacy
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- Instructional Communication
- Intercultural Communication
- Intergenerational Communication
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- Intrapersonal Communication
- Jealousy
- Journalism
- Language and Social Interaction
- Latino Communication
- Leadership
- Legal Communication
- Managerial Communication
- Mass Communication
- Massive Multiplayer Online Games
- Massive Open Online Courses
- Media and Technology Studies
- Media Diffusion
- Media Effects Research
- Media Literacy
- Message Production
- Multiplatform Journalism
- Native American or Indigenous Peoples Communication
- Nonverbal Communication
- Organizational Communication
- Parasocial Communication
- Passing
- Patient-Centered Communication
- Peace Studies
- Performance Studies
- Personal Relationship Studies
- Persuasion
- Philosophy of Communication
- Politeness
- Political Communication
- Political Debates
- Political Economy of Media
- Popular Communication
- Pornography and Research
- Propaganda
- Public Address
- Public Relations
- Reality Television
- Relational Dialectics Theory
- Religious Communication
- Rhetoric
- Rhetorical Genre
- Risk Communication
- Robotic Communication
- Science Communication
- Selective Exposure
- Service Learning
- Small Group Communication
- Social Cognition
- Social Network Systems
- Social Presence
- Social Relationships
- Spirituality and Communication
- Sports Communication
- Strategic Communication
- Structuration Theory
- Surrogacy
- Terrorism
- Training and Development in Organizations
- Video Games
- Visual Communication Studies
- Wartime Communication
- Structure of Research Community
- Areas of Inquiry
- Appendices
- Modern History of the Discipline of Communication
- Resource Guide
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