Читать книгу Social Work Research Methods - Reginald O. York - Страница 21

Perhaps the first task in measurement is to determine the suitability of measuring variables in a quantitative or qualitative manner. After a review of this question, the reader will be taken through a series of tasks related to quantitative measurement. The reader examines concepts such as measurement error, reliability, and validity and examines tools for addressing these issues such as the alpha coefficient. Also discussed are tips for finding a measurement tool and tips for developing your own measure. A concept given more emphasis in this book than others is that of practical significance. The reader sees how a study result can be of statistical significance without being of practical significance. Perhaps the conclusion in this situation would be that the trivial gain for the clients in this study is not explained by chance, but it is only trivial, so we did not achieve what we expected.