constructing and evaluating measurement instrumentsThis is an assignment in constructing and evaluating measurement instruments. Assume that you are part of a team that is conducting a study of college students in North Carolina. The study plans on surveying 2500 students, who will be selected in a scientific manner from schools around the state and who will be interviewed in person. There are a number of attributes or characteristics of these students that the study will attempt to measure, chief among which are the political attitudes of the students. In particular, the study wants to study the political ideology of the students, measured on a liberal-conservative continuum. This is an important focus of the research project, so it is important that the survey has a good measure of political ideology, one that will give a score to each student that will represent the students ideological orientation on a liberal-conservative continuum. Your role on this team is to devise the way that ideology will be measured (other team members are responsible for other aspects of the project, so you do not have to be concerned with those aspects).
Your paper should: 1. Describe how you would measure political ideology. Be sure to provide both conceptual and operational definitions for your variable, including how you would get a score for each student. 2. Explain why you think that the measurement instrument that you have devised is a good
operationalization of ideology.
3. Discuss the possible sources of error in your measure. Be specific about sources of error, including
providing hypothetical examples, if necessary.
4. Explain how you could assess the reliability and validity of your measure. Be specific about how you
could do this.
Be sure to use the course material as the theoretical basis for your paper, particularly when it comes to justifying your operationalization, identifying possible sources of error, and explaining how the reliability and validity of the measure could be assessed. Your conceptual definition of ideology should be based on the framework outlined by Janda, Berry, and Goldman (the reserve reading).
Papers should be typed (double-spaced) and should have a cover page with room for comments. The suggested length is 5-6 pages, but this is just a suggestion; your paper should be long enough to adequately cover the topic