Standardization of sociological tests in the context of measurement problem in sociology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26565/2227-6521-2025-54-01Keywords:
sociological methods, psychological tests, sociological test, measurement of social processes, standardization, scalingAbstract
The article is devoted to the analysis of a number of problems associated with the use of a specific method of obtaining sociological information - a sociological test. An overview of scientific approaches to understanding the concept of "sociological test" is presented, some related concepts are clarified (in particular, "test", "norm", "normative scale"), procedural aspects related to the development of sociological tests, methods for ensuring their diagnostic capacity are considered. Particular attention is paid to the issues of standardization of sociological tests, since this procedure, firstly, unifies the testing process and ensures objectivity and reproducibility, and, secondly, is an important prerequisite for checking a sociological test for reliability, validity and invariance, which generally determine the quality of this measuring tool. It is noted that, unlike psychological science, where standardization has become an integral part of research practice, sociological questionnaires are often developed without comprehensive verification of the internal structure, which leads to significant variability in the results obtained and complicates the comparison of data from different research centers. In the absence of tools, sociological research risks becoming fragmentary and unsuitable for the comparison procedure, which, in turn, limits the possibility of forming cumulative sociological knowledge, applying the obtained data in interdisciplinary and international comparative studies. These problems are particularly acute in the measurement of multidimensional and context-dependent social constructs (social trust, civic engagement, social status, etc.). The article also outlines a number of methodological guidelines for the practical implementation of the procedure for standardization of sociological tests, in particular, two aspects of standardization and its general procedure, the process and procedure for scale normalization, etc. are characterized. The article also outlines a number of methodological guidelines for the practical implementation of the procedure for standardizing sociological tests; in particular, it describes two aspects of standardization and its general procedure, the process and procedure for normalizing the scale, etc.
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