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Article: Social Measurement: What Stands in Its Way?
- Article from:
- Social Research
- Article date:
- June 22, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 New School for Social Research. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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When you cannot measure * your knowledge is * meager * and * unsatisfactory.
-Lord Kelvin (inscription carved in 1929 below the bay window of the Social Science Research Building of the University of Chicago)
who cares if some one-eyed son of a bitch invents an instrument to measure spring with.
-e. e. cummings
Measurement
MEASUREMENT is any process by which a value is assigned to the level or state of some quality of an object of study. This value is given numerical form, and measurement therefore involves the expression of information in quantifies rather than by verbal statement. It provides a powerful means of reducing ...