The book refers to theory and practice of the measurement and scales construction in the area of personal values. The effective measurement and scales development is a cornerstone of the scientific and practical research progress.
Interdisciplinary in application, book includes:
- a discussion of the generał values and personal values across different social science disciplines, as well as their relationships with the human needs, motivations, attitudes and behaviors
- types of personal values and their impact on the consumers‘ analysis and marketing research
- the author‘s proposition of scalę, based on the empirical research findings, for measuring the hedonic-consumerism values (HCV) with all implications for marketing activities
- measurement issues in the context of social sciences research, foundations of the measurement, comparison of the classical test theory vs. item response theory in reference to scalę development
- theory of reliability and validity, methods of reliability and validity analysis, criteria of the reliable and valid measurement
- the classification of scalę types, levels of measurement, process of the multi-item scalę development, recommended procedures for designing and conducting studies associated with the personal values
- the recommendations for designing and collecting measurement items,
differences between single- and multi-item scales as well as the advantages and disadvantages of the reflective and formative items
exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for developing andfinalizingthe scales

The work is especially useful for a wide rangę of researchers, academic workers (involved in the measurement and methodology of scales construction) who want to analyze personal values, or those who want to use them in their own research. It is also ideał resource for marketing professionals familiar with classical testing principles and for participants of the graduate level courses in business, consumer, psychology, sociology and other social sciences or as a supplement for courses on applied statistics, multivariate statistics and research design.


Introduction

I. Theory of human values
Basic theoretical assumptions underlying human values
Typology of value contents by Rokeach and Schwartz‘s theory
Hierarchy of human values
Values comparison across selected disciplines
Axiology
Psychology and sociology
Culture - anthropology
Economics
Human values - needs, motivation, attitudes and behaviors
Relationship between values and personal identity
Consumers‘ values in marketing
Personal values in theory of value utility
Personal values vs. product-services values for consumers in marketing
research
Subjective information in market segmentation - psychographics and
personal values
Product planning and promotional strategy in context of personal values

II. Measurement methodology
Selected notes on the history and notion of the measurement
History of measurement
General notion of measurement
Explication and additional interpretation of the measurement theories
Representational measurement theory
Operational measurement theory
Classical theory of measurement
Some measurement problems in context of the social sciences research
The meaning of tests in classical test theory - CTT
Conditions of CTT
Criticism of CTT
Item response theory - IRT
Notion and origins of IRT
Item characteristic curve - ICC
Classification of basic dichotomous data models in item response theory
Unidimensional logistic models
Dichotomous vs. polytomous item response theory models
CTT and IRT - some differences

III. Selected issues on scales classification and scaling
The link between measurement and scaling
Types of scales according to measurement levels
Admissible transformations on scales
Criticism of the Stevens‘s scales in relation to statistical data analysis
Attitudes and preferences scales - underlying classification
Scaling on summated, cumulative and comparative scales
Summated scales
Cumulative scales
Comparative scales
Rokeach‘s, Schwartz‘s and Kahle‘s scales for values measurement
The Rokeach value survey
Schwartz‘s value survey
LOV - list of values
A brief review of other measures-scales applied for values analysis
Rating-ranking scales controversy in values measurement

IV. Principles of items and scale development
Single-item vs. multiitem scales in measurement of constructs
Process of scale development in a view of classical test theory
Formative and reflective indicators measuring theoretical construct
Items development for the measured construct and respective scale
Items identification
Items construction
Dichotomous and Thurstone item formats
Items review
Preliminary pilot tests of items
Rossiter‘s C-OAR-SE - a new concept for scale development and its
criticism

V. Reliability and validity in a view of Classical Test Theory - CTT ..
Principles and meaning of reliability and validity
Reliability estimation
Homogeneity or heterogeneity of the group
Standard error of measurement and estimation
Reliability estimation for unidimensional reflective indicators
Selected methods of reliability estimation
Test-retest method
Parallel-test, alternate forms
Internal consistency reliability methods
Alpha factor analysis and principal components reliability estimation
Types of validity
Content validity
Pragmatic-criterion validity
Construct validity
Validation methods
Group differences analysis and measuring change in scores with time
lapse
Correlation between a measure of the construct and designated
Factorial validity and multi-trait-multi-method
Items analysis in reference to difficulty and discrimination indices

VI. Exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory (CFA) factor analysis for scale
development
Relationship between factor analysis and classical test theory - CTT
Underlying aims of factor analysis in the field of statistics
Differences between EFA and CFA
Common factor analysis model - CFAM
Variance decomposition, matrix of correlation and factor loadings
Principal component analysis - PCA vs. common factor analysis
Methods of factor loadings estimation and factors extraction
Selected approaches to communality estimation
Number of factors
Geometrical identification and techniques of factors rotation
Factor scores analysis
Sample size and soundness of observed variables
Interpretation of factors and factor indeterminacy
Confirmatory factor analysis model - CFA
Model of CFA
CFA - unstandardized vs. standardized solution and covariance-mean
structure
Scaling latent variable - factor
CFA model identification
CFA fitting function and methods of estimation
CFA model evaluation - selected fit indices
Statistical power and significance of the CFA model‘s parameter
estimates
Alternative models in CFA
Respecification of CFA model
Sample size and distributional properties of observed variables in CFA ... Reporting practices and final remarks about the process of CFA model
construction
Measurement invariance and multi group confirmatory factor analysis -
MGCFA

VII. Scale development for hedonic-consumerism values
Scale construction - underlying assumptions
Hedonism construct - definition
Hedonism in context of the consumerism
Relationship between consumption, hedonism and utilitarism
Hedonic vs. utilitarian benefits and the sense of guilt
Some other influence of hedonic values on consumers‘ behavior
Research methodology
The rationale choice of young consumers as a sample for personal values
analysis
Exploratory interviews and pilot study in reference to initial pool of
items
Sample - selected characteristics from data collection
Empirical analysis
Items and data preliminary screening
Items correlation and their adequacy for factorial model
Exploration of dimensionality and number of components - factors
Comparison of extraction methods and rotations in exploratory factors
analysis - EFA
Hierarchical exploratory factor analysis - HEFA
Scale reliability in reference to exploratory factor analysis
Confirmatory factory analysis - CFA
Structures and types of CFA models
CFA Model 1 - fit evaluation and rejection
CFA model 2 with further split into model 2a and 2b - comparison
CFA models (2a and 2b) - parameter estimates
Ultimate CFA model in the context of reliability and validity
Hedonic-consumerism values (HCV) - ultimate scale and its implications
for marketing
Measurement and scales development in marketing field - conclusions
Appendix questionnaire
References
List of Figures
List of Tables