In addition to hundreds of new references features new to this edition include: a comprehensive introduction to qualitative methods including a review of existing computer applications for collecting and analyzing data; the latest information about the use of computers and online research techniques, including the use of the Internet to locate actual research instruments and journal articles; updated coverage on new scales, internal and external validity, and new analytic techniques with extensive references on each; abstracts, citations and subject groupings by measurement tool of the last five years of the American Sociological Review, Social Psychology Quarterly, and the American Journal of Sociology; extensive coverage of how to prepare manuscripts for publication, including a list of all journals covered by Sociological Abstracts along with the editorial office address and URL for each entry; new coverage of ethical issues; expansion of social indicators to include international coverage; discussion of the importance of policy research with presentation and discussion of specific models as an adjunct to both applied and basic research techniques; and the addition of an index to facilitate the reader's ability to quickly locate a topic.

Guides for the Selection and Construction of Social Scales and Indexes

Guides for the Selection and Construction of Social Scales and Indexes

Scaling techniques play a major role in the construction of instruments for collecting standardized, measurable data. Scales and indexes are significant because they provide quantitative measures that are amenable to greater precision, statistical manipulation, and explicit interpretation. Before constructing a new scale, however, it is important to conduct a very careful survey of the literature to ascertain if an appropriate scale already is available to measure the dependent or independent variables in a given study. The general rule is this: The available scale should be ...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles