A Pragmatic Perspective of Measurement

A Pragmatic Perspective of Measurement
Author: David Torres Irribarra
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 96
Release: 2021-05-29
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 3030740250

This book aims to address the challenges of defining measurement in social sciences, presenting a conceptualization of the practice of measurement from the perspective of the pragmatic tradition in philosophy. The book reviews key questions regarding the scope and limits of measurement, emphasizing that if the trust that the public places on measures in the social sciences relies on their connection to the notion of measurement in the physical sciences, then the clarification of the similarities and differences between measurement in the physical and the social realms is of central importance to adequately contextualize their relative advantages and limitations. It goes on to present some of the most influential theories of measurement such as the “classical view” of measurement, operationalism, and the representational theory of measurement, as well as more methodological perspectives arising from the practice of researchers in the social sciences, such as the latent variable perspective, and from the physical sciences and engineering, represented by metrology. This overview illustrates that the concept of measurement, and that of quantitative methods, is currently being used across the board in ways that do not necessarily conform to traditional, classical definitions of measurement, pushing the boundaries of what constitutes our technical understanding of it. Moreover, what constitutes a technical understanding of measurement, and the theoretical commitments that it entails, must vary in different areas. In this context, disagreement on what is constitutive of measurement is bound to appear. Pragmatism is presented as a theoretical perspective that offers the advantage of being flexible and fallibilist, encouraging us to abandon the pursuit of a timeless and perfect definition that attempts to establish decontextualized/definitive demarcation criteria for what is truly measurement. This book will be of particular interest for psychologists and other human and social scientists, and more concretely for scholars interested in measurement and assessment in psychological and social measurement. The pragmatic perspective of measurement presents a conceptual framework for researchers to ground their assessment practices acknowledging and dealing with the challenges of social measurement.

PRAGMATIC Security Metrics

PRAGMATIC Security Metrics
Author: W. Krag Brotby
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 507
Release: 2016-04-19
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1439881537

Other books on information security metrics discuss number theory and statistics in academic terms. Light on mathematics and heavy on utility, PRAGMATIC Security Metrics: Applying Metametrics to Information Security breaks the mold. This is the ultimate how-to-do-it guide for security metrics.Packed with time-saving tips, the book offers easy-to-fo

Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Methods

Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Methods
Author: David L. Morgan
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2013-06-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1483313662

Focusing on research designs for projects that collect both qualitative and quantitative data, this practical book discusses strategies for bringing qualitative and quantitative methods together so that their combined strengths accomplish more than is possible with a single method. The approach is broadly interdisciplinary, reflecting the interest in mixed methods research of social scientists from anthropology, communication, criminal justice, education, evaluation, nursing, organizational behavior, psychology, political science, public administration, public health, sociology, social work, and urban studies. In contrast to an "anything goes" approach or a naïve hope that "two methods are better than one," the author argues that projects using mixed methods must pay even more attention to research design than single method approaches. The book’s practical emphasis on mixed methods makes it useful both to active researchers and to students who intend to pursue such a career.

Historical and Conceptual Foundations of Measurement in the Human Sciences

Historical and Conceptual Foundations of Measurement in the Human Sciences
Author: Derek C. Briggs
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 381
Release: 2021-11-15
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1000465772

Historical and Conceptual Foundations of Measurement in the Human Sciences explores the assessment and measurement of nonphysical attributes that define human beings: abilities, personalities, attitudes, dispositions, and values. The proposition that human attributes are measurable remains controversial, as do the ideas and innovations of the six historical figures—Gustav Fechner, Francis Galton, Alfred Binet, Charles Spearman, Louis Thurstone, and S. S. Stevens—at the heart of this book. Across 10 rich, elaborative chapters, readers are introduced to the origins of educational and psychological scaling, mental testing, classical test theory, factor analysis, and diagnostic classification and to controversies spanning the quantity objection, the role of measurement in promoting eugenics, theories of intelligence, the measurement of attitudes, and beyond. Graduate students, researchers, and professionals in educational measurement and psychometrics will emerge with a deeper appreciation for both the challenges and the affordances of measurement in quantitative research.

Transforming Performance Measurement

Transforming Performance Measurement
Author: Dean Spitzer
Publisher: AMACOM
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2007-02-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0814430090

Performance improvement thought leader Dean Spitzer explains why performance measurement should be less about calculations and analysis and more about the crucial social factors that determine how well the measurements get used. Transforming Performance Measurement presents a breakthrough approach that will not only significantly reduce those dysfunctions, but also promote alignment with business strategy, maximize cross-enterprise integration, and help everyone to work collaboratively to drive value throughout your organization. Spitzer’s "socialization of measurement" process focuses on learning and improvement from measurement, and on the importance of asking such questions as: How well do our measures reflect our business model? How successfully are they driving our strategy? What should we be measuring and not measuring? Are the right people having the right measurement discussions? Performance measurement is a dynamic process that calls for an awareness of the balance necessary between seemingly disparate ideas: the technical and the social aspects of performance measurement. This book gives you assessment tools to gauge where you are now and a roadmap for moving, with little or no disruption, to a more "transformational" and mature measurement system. The book also provides 34 TMAPs, Transformational Measurement Action Plans, which suggest both well-accepted and "emergent" measures (in areas such as marketing, human resources, customer service, knowledge management, productivity, information technology, research and development, costing, and more) that you can use right away. Transforming Performance Measurement tells you not only what to measure, but how to do it -- and in what context -- to make a truly transformational difference in your enterprise.

The Cambridge Handbook of Motivation and Learning

The Cambridge Handbook of Motivation and Learning
Author: K. Ann Renninger
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 1172
Release: 2019-02-14
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1316832473

Written by leading researchers in educational and social psychology, learning science, and neuroscience, this edited volume is suitable for a wide-academic readership. It gives definitions of key terms related to motivation and learning alongside developed explanations of significant findings in the field. It also presents cohesive descriptions concerning how motivation relates to learning, and produces a novel and insightful combination of issues and findings from studies of motivation and/or learning across the authors' collective range of scientific fields. The authors provide a variety of perspectives on motivational constructs and their measurement, which can be used by multiple and distinct scientific communities, both basic and applied.

Measurement Across the Sciences

Measurement Across the Sciences
Author: Luca Mari
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2023-02-25
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3031224485

This open access book proposes a conceptual framework for understanding measurement across a broad range of scientific fields and areas of application, such as physics, engineering, education, and psychology. It addresses contemporary issues and controversies within measurement in light of the framework, including operationalism, definitional uncertainty, and the relations between measurement and computation, and describes how the framework, operating as a shared concept system, supports understanding measurement’s work in different domains, using examples in the physical and human sciences. This revised and expanded second edition features a new analysis of the analogies and the differences between the error/uncertainty-related approach adopted in physical measurement and the validity-related approach adopted in psychosocial measurement. In addition, it provides a better analysis and presentation of measurement scales, in particular about their relations with quantity units, and introduces the measurand identification/definition as a part of the "Hexagon Framework" along with new examples from the physical and psychosocial sciences. Researchers and academics across a wide range of disciplines including biological, physical, social, and behavioral scientists, as well as specialists in measurement and philosophy appreciate the work’s fresh and provocative approach to the field at a time when sound measurements of complex scientific systems are increasingly essential to solving critical global problems.

Robust Multimodal Cognitive Load Measurement

Robust Multimodal Cognitive Load Measurement
Author: Fang Chen
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2016-06-14
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3319317008

This book explores robust multimodal cognitive load measurement with physiological and behavioural modalities, which involve the eye, Galvanic Skin Response, speech, language, pen input, mouse movement and multimodality fusions. Factors including stress, trust, and environmental factors such as illumination are discussed regarding their implications for cognitive load measurement. Furthermore, dynamic workload adjustment and real-time cognitive load measurement with data streaming are presented in order to make cognitive load measurement accessible by more widespread applications and users. Finally, application examples are reviewed demonstrating the feasibility of multimodal cognitive load measurement in practical applications. This is the first book of its kind to systematically introduce various computational methods for automatic and real-time cognitive load measurement and by doing so moves the practical application of cognitive load measurement from the domain of the computer scientist and psychologist to more general end-users, ready for widespread implementation. Robust Multimodal Cognitive Load Measurement is intended for researchers and practitioners involved with cognitive load studies and communities within the computer, cognitive, and social sciences. The book will especially benefit researchers in areas like behaviour analysis, social analytics, human-computer interaction (HCI), intelligent information processing, and decision support systems.

Simplifying Risk Management

Simplifying Risk Management
Author: Patrick Roberts
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2022-04-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1000574555

Recent decades have seen much greater attention paid to risk management at an organizational level, as evidenced by the proliferation of legislation, regulation, international standards and good practice guidance. The recent experience of Covid-19 has only served to heighten this attention. Growing interest in the discipline has been accompanied by significant growth in the risk management profession; but practitioners are not well served with suitable books to guide them in their work or challenge them in their professional development. This book attempts to place the practice of risk management within organizations into a broader context, looking as much at why we try to manage risk as how we try to manage risk. In doing so, it challenges two significant trends in the practice of risk management: • The treatment of risk management primarily as a compliance issue within an overall corporate governance narrative; and • The very widespread use of qualitative risk assessment tools (“heat maps” etc.) which have absolutely no proven effectiveness. Taken together, these trends have resulted in much attention being devoted to developing formalized systems for identifying and analyzing risks; but there is little evidence that this is driving practical, cost-effective efforts to actually manage risk. There appears to be a preoccupation with the risks themselves, rather than a focus on the positive actions that can (and should) be taken to benefit stakeholders. This book outlines a simple, quantitative approach to risk management which refocuses attention on treating risks; and presents choices about risk treatment as normal business decisions.