“If something exists, it must exist in some quantity and that quantity can be measured.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n To me, the whole idea of measurement is fascinating. The belief that everything from how good of a mother you are to the love you have for your spouse to intelligence can be somehow reduced to a number strikes some people like a science fiction story.<\/p>\n Let’s think about how this can really be done. Let’s take “a good family”, how could you possibly measure if someone comes from a good family?<\/p>\n You’d start with asking questions, and there really is a limited set of questions that most people would agree upon. Few people outside of mental institutions would ask such questions as:<\/p>\n Do you own a kazoo?<\/em><\/p>\n How many grapefruits are in your refrigerator? <\/em><\/p>\n What color is your llama?<\/em><\/p>\n Many more people would ask questions that sound like good measures, such as:<\/p>\n How often do you read to your child?<\/em><\/p>\n Do you sing songs to your child that teach patterns, like Ten Bears in a Bed?<\/em><\/p>\n Have you taken your child out somewhere in the past month (such as relative’s house, museum, church)?<\/em><\/p>\n Even if these questions sound good, they may not be good measures. Let’s assume we agree that not all families are equally good. Then a question that everyone answers the same is not a good question for our measure. So, we start with item analysis. First, we do a frequency distribution. If everyone gives the same answer, there must be something wrong with this question and we throw it out.<\/p>\n Second, we get the mean (average), standard deviation (the average difference from the mean) and graph the frequency distribution. Below is a graph of some data I just happened to have laying around. This is one of the things I love about my life, that I just happen to have data laying around. Also the fact that I don’t know whether the correct word is ‘lying’ or ‘laying’. If this was The Phantom Tollbooth, <\/a>I would SO be living in Digitopolis.<\/p>\n![\"neanderthal\"](\"http:\/\/www.thejuliagroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/neanderthal.jpg\")
<\/a>A lot of people disagree with that idea and there are whole volumes written about how people like me are backward neanderthals. In addition to the redundancy of “backward neanderthal” (is there a “progressive neanderthal”), this is factually incorrect as one can see by the pictures I have helpfully provided of a neanderthal and me. ![\"Me](\"http:\/\/www.thejuliagroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/me.jpg\")
<\/a> The one wearing sunglasses is not the neanderthal.<\/p>\n