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from a respondent on the basis of a question. decide a point as zero point and proceed If you want to know how a mother feels about further. As a result, whatever scores we the loss of her child, you will need to hear her get in psychological studies, are not story to understand how her experience is absolute in nature; rather, they have organised and what meaning she has given to relative value. her suffering. Any attempt at its quantification In some of the studies ranks are used will not enable you to get at the principles of as scores. For example, on the basis of marks obtained in some test, the teacher organising such experiences. Psychologists have developed various qualitative methods arranges the students in an order — 1, 2, to analyse such data. One of them is Narrative 3, 4, … , and so on. The problem in such Analysis. Also data are not always available type of assessment is that the difference in the form of scores. When the researcher between first and second rank holders may not be the same as is the difference uses the method of participant observation or unstructured interview, the data are generally between the second and third rank in a descriptive form—in participants’ own holders. Out of 50, the first rank holder words, field notes taken by the researchers, might score 48, the second 47, and the photographs, interview responses noted by the third 40. As you can see, the difference between the first and the second rank researcher or taped/video-recorded, informal talks, etc. These type of data cannot be holders is not the same as is the case converted into scores or subjected to statistical between second and third rank holders. analysis. Rather, the researcher uses the This also illustrates the relative nature of the psychological measurement. technique of content analysis to find out thematic categories and build those categories 2. Relative Nature of Psychological Tools : taking examples from the data. It is more Psychological tests are developed keeping descriptive in nature. in view the salient features of a particular It must be understood that quantitative context. For example, a test developed for and qualitative methods are not contradictory; urban students may contain items that rather, they are complementary to each other. demand familiarity with the stimuli In order to understand a phenomenon in its available in the urban setting— totality, a suitable combination of both multistoried buildings, airplanes, metro methods is warranted. railway, etc. Such a test is not suitable for use with children living in tribal areas who L IMITATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ENQUIRY would be more at ease with items that describe their flora and fauna. Similarly, The advantages and limitations of each a test developed in the Western countries may or may not be applicable in the Indian method have been discussed earlier. In this section, you will read some general problems context. Such tests need to be properly faced by psychological measurement. modified and adapted keeping in view the characteristics of the context in which they 1. Lack of True Zero Point : In physical are to be used. sciences measurements do start from zero. For example, if you want to measure the 3. Subjective Interpretation of Qualitative length of the table, you can measure it Data : Data from qualitative studies are largely subjective since they involve starting from zero and can say it is 3' long. Psychological measurements do not have interpretation on the part of the researcher a true zero point. For example, no person as well as the person providing data. The in this world has zero intelligence. All of interpretations may vary from one us have some degree of intelligence. What individual to the other. It is, therefore, often suggested that in case of qualitative psychologists do is that they arbitrarily 36 Psychology Reprint 2026-27