Becalmed in murky waters: Measurement problems in sociology

Abstract

INTRODUCT ION. Basic measurement problems continue to plague sociologists. This condition came largely by historical accident, when social reformers captured the infant field. These professionals presented themselves as scientists, but restricted their research efforts I most exclusively to descriptive surveys, relying on nominal and ordinal level measurement of culturally defined and reified social categories. Though such measurement produced data and permitted tests of hypotheses, finings tended to be historical rather than theoretical. This did little to strengthen measurement, and eventually sociologists succumbed to "classical test theory,", a set of measurement definitions and notions which, while invalid, enabled researchers to mislead all concerned about the validity of their findings. I will recommend three actions: 1) to adopt the general science measurement model; 2)· encourage a reductionist general systems approach to sociological concepts; 3) encourage selective recruitment of sociologists with stronger mathematical and scientific backgrounds. Comte, a great admirer of Newtonian mechanics, coined the term sociology "to designate social physics (Comte 1830 42)." But in the United States, sociology was dominated by social reformers who adopted scientific "front" only after world War I as a stratagem for achieving academic recognition(Dynes 1974 173). Many measurement problems were consequently either ignored or so transmogrified that modern researchers may not realize that the original measurement problem remains unsolved.