SOME CASE STUDIES ON IMPORTANCE OF VARIABLES AND SCALES OF MEASUREMENT IN SOCIAL SCIENCES RESEARCH

Abstract: Social Sciences studies human behaviour and it is very important that the conditions under which they occurred and also to describe the behaviour accurately and correctly. Thus it becomes important to have a "measure" of behaviour, description of all factors influencing behaviour and to what extent these influence such behaviour. They provide an opportunity for others to verify these observations. It is very important to present collected data in an accurate and easy-to-understand manner through various tools like diagrams and graphs. Every object possesses some characteristic which can be used as a scale for measurement. In the past, silver, food grains etc were used as units of measurement. concepts are large in number and part do not bear the kind of simple relationships to one another like in the physical sciences and there is a lack of strong mathematical theories against which to evaluate measurements in social sciences. A proper understanding of the scales of measurement which have to be used for different kinds of variables, is thus, an essential part of social sciences research. This paper focuses on some case studies in the usage of scales of measurement in social sciences research.  

Keywords: Social Sciences research, variables, scales of measurement, case studies