Measurement Error and Research Design

Madhu Viswanathan earned Bachelor’s (Mechanical Engineering, IIT, Madras, India, 1985), and doctoral (Marketing, University of Minnesota, 1990) degrees.  He joined Loyola Marymount University in August, 2019, after being on the faculty at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, for 29 years. His research programs are on measurement, and subsistence marketplaces, where he has authored several books including Measurement Error and Research Design (Sage, 2005), Enabling Consumer and Entrepreneurial Literacy in Subsistence Marketplaces (Springer, 2008), Subsistence Marketplaces (ebookpartnerships, 2013), and Bottom-Up Enterprise (ebookpartnerships, 2016).  He has pioneered the area of subsistence marketplaces, with a bottom-up approach to the intersection of poverty and marketplaces (www.business.illinois.edu/subsistence).  He taught courses on research methods, subsistence, and sustainability, educational experiences on the latter, reaching almost a thousand students a year at the University of Illinois, and tens of thousands of students around the world through Coursera.  He founded and directs the Marketplace Literacy Project (www.marketplaceliteracy.org), pioneering the design and delivery of marketplace literacy education to subsistence marketplaces.  With partners and ongoing programs in India, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Argentina, Honduras, Mexico, and Illinois, approximately 100,000 women have received marketplace literacy education.  He has received numerous awards and served on the Livelihoods Advisory Board of UNHCR.

• Foreword - Richard BagozziPrefaceAcknowledgments1. WHAT IS MEASUREMENT?OverviewWhat Is Measurement Error?Overview of Traditional Measure Development ProceduresConceptual and Operational Definitions Domain DelineationMeasure Design and Item GenerationInternal Consistency ReliabilityTest-Retest ReliabilityDimensionality - Exploratory Factor AnalysisDimensionality - Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation ModelingValidityGeneral Issues in MeasurementSummaryAppendices2. WHAT IS MEASUREMENT ERROR?OverviewRandom ErrorSystematic ErrorTypes of Random and Systematic ErrorIllustrations of Measurement Error Through Error PatternsPatterns of Responses in Measurement ErrorSummaryAppendix3. WHAT CAUSES MEASUREMENT ERROR?OverviewSources of Measurement ErrorTaxonomy of Error SourcesSummary4. CAN EMPIRICAL PROCEDURES PINPOINT TYPES OF MEASUREMENT ERROR?OverviewInternal Consistency Reliability ProceduresTest-Retest Reliability ProceduresFactor Analysis ProceduresValidity TestsSummary5. HOW CAN MEASUREMENT ERROR BE IDENTIFIED AND CORRECTED FOR IN MEASURE DEVELOPMENT?OverviewGuidelines for Identifying and Correcting For Error in Measure DevelopmentGeneric Issues in Designing Psychometric TestsItem-to-Total Correlations (Internal Consistency Procedures)Item MeansTest-Retest Correlations (Test-Retest Reliability)Factor Loadings (Exploratory Factor Analysis)Residuals (Confirmatory Factor Analysis)Cross-Construct Correlations (Validity Tests)Conditions of Future Use of MeasuresDiscussionSummary6. HOW CAN ERROR BE IDENTIFIED THROUGH INNOVATIVE DESIGN AND ANALYSES?OverviewUsing Internal Consistency and Test-Retest Reliability in ConjunctionUsing Correlations Across Item-Level CorrelationsEmpirical Assessment of Item-Sequencing EffectsSummary7. HOW DO MEASURES DIFFER?OverviewStimulus-Centered Versus Respondent-Centered ScalesFormative and Reflective Indicators of ConstructsSummary8. WHAT ARE EXAMPLES OF MEASURES AND MEASUREMENT ACROSS VARIOUS DISCIPLINES?OverviewTypes of MeasuresTypes of Response FormatsSpecific Examples of Scales From Different DisciplinesCross-Cultural MeasurementSummary9. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF UNDERSTANDING MEASUREMENT ERROR FOR RESEARCH DESIGN AND ANALYSIS?OverviewImplications for Using Measures in Research DesignImplications for Using Structural Equation ModelingImplications for Applied ResearchSummary10. HOW DOES MEASUREMENT ERROR AFFECT RESEARCH DESIGN?OverviewTypes of Research DesignsMeasurement Error in Survey DesignsMeasurement Error in Experimental DesignsResearch Design and Measurement ErrorSummaryAppendices11. WHAT IS THE ROLE OF MEASUREMENT IN SCIENCE?OverviewAssumptions of MeasurementQualitative Versus Quantitative ResearchMeasuring the "Measurable"From Physical to Psychological MeasurementInformal MeasurementEthics in MeasurementSummary12. WHAT ARE THE KEY PRINCIPLES AND GUIDING ORIENTATIONS OF THIS BOOK?OverviewSummary of ChaptersImplications for Measurement and Research DesignSummary of OrientationsReferencesIndexAbout the Author

"Dr. Viswanathan has made an important contribution to the array of books available on measurement. In his book, he calls the reader’s attention to types of errors encountered in measurement, how they are made, and most importantly, how researchers can go about identifying and eliminating them. If you are doing research, whether you are developing measures or using already developed measures, the information in this book will help you to understand how to investigate the limitations of the measures you work with."