Workshop on Measurement and Scaling Using R

Date: March 4, 2025 – Tuesday

Time: 14:00 – 17:00

 Place: santralistanbul Campus, TSA

* The workshop is open only to BİLGİ academic staff and registration is required.

Measurement and scaling are at the core of empirical research in the social sciences, humanities, and law, where researchers seek to quantify abstract and often subjective constructs such as attitudes, preferences, beliefs, ideological positions, and psychological traits. Unlike the natural sciences, where direct measurement of physical properties is possible, social scientists must develop latent variable models to infer unobservable traits from observed data. This requires robust methodological tools that ensure reliability, validity, and interpretability in measurement.

Traditional techniques like Factor Analysis help researchers uncover hidden patterns in data by identifying underlying latent constructs, while Item Response Theory (IRT) provides a framework for modeling responses to survey and test items, allowing for more precise measurement of individual differences. In contrast, Aldrich-McKelvey Scaling is used to estimate individuals' positions on a latent continuum, particularly useful for analyzing perceptions and ideological placements when the differential item functioning problem is prevalent. We will use R and key statistical packages (lavaan, mirt, and hbamr) to conduct measurement and scaling analyses. The course is hands-on, with participants actively working with real datasets to apply these methods step by step. By the end of the workshop, participants will have a solid understanding of how to apply these  techniques in their research.

Please click for more information.

Click for the registration form.