The center point of research studies is the body of data collected to answer the research question. These data must be measured, which is the act of taking an abstract concept (e.g., depression, anger, etc.), sorting them out and quantifying them in some cohesive way in order to construct meaning—but how can you measure something that is not easily quantifiable?

Choosing an appropriate measurement tool requires consideration of a number of different issues including reliability, validity, appropriateness for use with a specific group or culture, availability, and potential cost. Sometimes, social workers will attempt to create their own set of questions to tap into or measure a concept. This may appear to be an easy thing to do; however, writing questions to measure a phenomenon is more challenging than it would seem. For example, how do we know it measures what we want it to measure?  In the first discussion this week, you will have the opportunity to create your own questions to measure a phenomenon of your interest. In the second discussion, you will compare the measure you created with an existing instrument that measures the same phenomenon.

To prepare: Choose one phenomenon or issue that a client may be dealing with (for example, depression, anxiety, or family conflict). Consider how you would evaluate the client’s progress in this area. Create questions with response options that would capture this phenomenon or client issue.

• Identify the phenomenon you would measure and explain how you conceptualize this phenomenon.
• Provide at least 3 questions you would use to measure this phenomenon and explain how these questions operationalize the phenomenon.
• Define reliability in 2-3 sentences and give one example of how you would establish reliability for the questions you created.
• Define validity in 2-3 sentences and give one example of how you would establish validity for the questions you created.
• Create a measurement plan to assess the phenomenon.
  • Describe the methodology you would use to collect data using your measurement tool (your method for acquiring this research data).
  • Explain the advantages and disadvantages of your choices. Methods of Measuring Assignment

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION- MATHEMATICAL MEASURING 

Methods of Measuring

Introduction

Measuring is an important skill for every scientist, but it’s one that’s often overlooked. Measuring units of length, mass and time are all important aspects of science, but these things are also quite easy to mess up when you’re not careful. Luckily for us, there are a few rules that can help our measurements be more accurate and precise. Let’s take a look at some of these rules so that you can start measuring better in your next experiment:

First, make sure you convert everything to SI units.

The first thing to do before you start measuring is to make sure that everything is in SI units. The most common units used in science are the base units of length, mass and time. Other commonly used units are derived from these base ones:

• Temperature (T) – where one degree Celsius (C) can be converted into one kelvin (K).

• Pressure (P) – where one atmosphere (Atm) can be converted into 1 torr or 0.101325 bar, depending on whether it’s absolute pressure or local atmospheric pressure at sea level.

Always account for significant figures.

• Always account for significant figures.

• How to determine significant figures:

• The method of rounding is often used to determine the number of significant figures in a number. If you round up, then it’s called an “exponential” or “common” way of rounding numbers; if you round down it’s called a “pascal” or “scientific” method of rounding numbers (though there are exceptions). For example, if your calculation requires five digits and you have six digits available in order to represent that value, one could say that this means there are two more zeroes after the decimal point than would’ve been considered acceptable had they been rounded up instead! A lot can happen when dealing with large numbers—so always check how many digits each digit represents before performing any calculations on them!

Don’t forget to include the unit in your final answer.

You must include the unit in your final answer. This is important because if you do not, it will be rounded to zero and this may cause confusion for students. For example, if you want to find out how many people live on Earth, but don’t know how many square miles there are and what kind of area they are in (e.g., county or country), then you can use this method:

• Divide by 2 because there are two people per square mile;

• Multiply by 100 million since there are 100 million square miles; and

• Add 1 since there are now three people living on Earth at any given time

Make sure your conversion factor is set up correctly.

To get the new measurement, you’ll need to know the conversion factor. The conversion factor is the number that you multiply your original measurement by to get a new measurement. If it’s a whole number (like 1), then everything works fine; if it’s a fraction, however… well.. let’s just say things can get complicated quickly!

The best way to avoid confusion here is to make sure that your conversion factors are set up correctly in advance so they’re easy for everyone involved—including yourself!

Remember these rules when measuring

When measuring, it’s important to remember the following rules:

• Use a conversion factor. Different units have different sizes and shapes, so it’s best to use a conversion factor so that you can measure in one unit and get an accurate measurement of another. For example, if you wanted to measure 3 inches by 4 inches, use the appropriate length for measuring long objects (1 foot). Then multiply this number by 2 (to get 6 inches), then divide that result by 6 (to get 0.5). This will give us an accurate measurement of our object’s size when compared with others like ours in which we do not need such precision!

Conclusion

We hope this article has helped your understand how to correctly use the various types of measuring instruments out there. There are many more types of measuring methods, but these are the most common ones you’ll find in a science class. You should be able to apply what we’ve covered here when doing science experiments and projects at home, so get started now!