5.5 Measurement and Scaling Techniques

Measurement = the attributes' assignment to the variables by rules — the qualitative-to- quantitative's hinge. The scales' four levels (the exam's ladder):1. Nominal — the names (the party's caste; the offence's class; the court's district) — no order.2. Ordinal — the ranks (the seriousness's 1-2-3; the agreement's high-medium-low) — order without distance.3. Interval — the equal distances without a true zero (the attitude scores; the year's index) — the arithmetic's entry.4. Ratio — the true zero (the delay's days; the fee's rupees; the docket's counts) — the full arithmetic. The scaling techniques (the instruments' craft): the Likert scale (the agree- disagree's degrees — the five-point standard: the attitude's thermometer), the Guttman'scumulative scale (the intensity's ladder — each item implies the lower), the Thurstone'sequal-appearing intervals (the judges' calibrated statements), the semantic differential (the adjective-pairs' positioning), and the rating vs ranking distinction. In legal research: the access-to-justice indices (the trust-in-courts scales), the victimisation's severity gradings, the lawyers' perception batteries — and the construction's disciplines (the reliability's test — the consistency; the validity's test — the truth of the measure; the pilot's verification).