Vijay,

We will need a little more information. For eample could you provide information to what you are seeking to obtain or question(s) that you are seeking to answer. If you are seeking to conduct social research, decisions will need to be made if it will be a quantitative, quantitative, or mixed methods study. That information will aid in identifying the differences of the methodologies that you presented as well as validity and reliability tests for each method.

Hi,

- Test involve that you have a previous standardris measurement of that kind of item´s and you want to make sizeing it.

- Measure imply that you want to know the value of one or few characteristics of the item.

- Scale means that you want to design a standarized criteria to measure some characteristics and buit a test.

- Inventory imply a registracion of a colection of items by there main characteristics.

- Questionnarie involve a construcction of questions for inquar diferents aspects of some subject or to make an interrogation to some one about especifict thems.

Hope help you....

thanks Alejandro, but i further need clarification that in social science research how construction and standardization procedures differ in case of a questionnaire, test, inventory and scale

I have put this question for the sake of construction of these tools for quantitative research, i. E. How they differ in their construction, standardization and application.

Most of the research that I have read and conducted in the form of questionaires have utilized the Likert scale where you can utilize the responses based on the level of perception. If you will be creating a questionare (just an assumption because you are looking into social research) you will need to have to test for validity and reliability. There are specific statistical tools used for these tests, the more common one is the t-test based on the responses received. If you are creating your own instrument validity and reliability will need to be determined of the instrument before using on your target population or group.

My reccomendation is to research similiar studies that have been published and used to your study. Using an instrument that has already been tested for validity and reliability will save you time preparing the instrument and move faster to obtaining the information you are looking for. I am also assuming that you will be using this information for scholarly work or publication, if so, permission to use the instrument from the originator will need to be obtained. Hope this helps.

The definitions are applicable to social studies and cuantitavive or cualitative approach.

To defined wich one are mostly ideal for the study, the analysis and structure of your methodology design give you the parameter to select the best option. The problem is not the technique or how to built a questionnaire, test, inventory and scale, because each one give you some thing diferent. Mainly you have to be realy rigth to select the most proper technique for the propose objectives.

Example - The Test involve that you have a previous standardization measurement of that kind of item´s and you want to make sizeing it. Therefore each group of questions where design and asociated to a theorical category, which has a given value supported by many later studies. The Test measure the overall value of the fellow according to the score acquire in each theorical castegory or the sum or average obtained. For that are usually use some scale measurement like Likert for categorical answers,

If you clarify your main doubt, I can lead you to solve it.

As far as i understand in inventory we are interested to invent rather than proving fixed choices, still i doubt the other responses. let see somebody else can provide better answer. thanks anyway.

i saw your profile which shows you have interest in qualitative research. i suggest you to study Q-Technique by Stephenson 1953, an unused but very effective technique to study problems qualitatively.

its about finding objective answers to subjective ideas to asseson quality and other subjective characteristics. For instance if we are interested to grade the work of some artists, studying concepts like quality education, teaching behaviors, values classiofication and the like. for introductory details you can consult Karlinger if find interesting read Stephenson's "study of behaviour"

. you can continue discuscussion may be personal at

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All the items you mention are instruments used for data collection. I think we are not very carefull in using these terms and we usually used some of them interchangeable. I think we need to agree about exact definitions. For example, for me a test is an instrument developed in order to measure a very specific characteristic, with established and known properties such as checks for validity and reliability and for many psychometric characteristics. Not any questionnaire or scale can get inmediatly and automaticly the status of "Test".

Tanks for response, i do agree that there is confusion in clear demarcation between these instruments.

I think this are the terms cover the definitions across the context, action, data analysis and interpretation. 

But basically, three types of books are suggested as below:

1) Scale development (Items, Inventory, Instrument...): We define the possible constructs (single or a set of items) which align to the outcomes and expectations (observable or unobservable). Such as speed (fast or slow) or happiness (exciting or sad).  

2) Data collection (Test, Survey, Questionnaire... etc): the medium of collecting the Qualitative data or Quantitative data in context.

3) Data Analysis or call Interpretation (Constructs, Scales, Dimensions...): The concepts of measurable hypothesis or observation.

It is just my simplified examples.  Hope it helps...

What are the clear cut differences between Test, Measure, Scale, Inventory, Questionnaire, etc?

Note: following 5 terms being defined in the context of social research's data collection approach.  These individual 5 terms can carry other meanings when they are being used separately in other context.

Test: is an exercise to evaluate data or answers of a questionnaire collected from respondents of a research e.g. Cronbach Alpha Test is to evaluate how reliable or internal consistency of questions within a questionnaire for a variable through data collected.

Measure: if it is used as a verb then it carries the similar meaning as above “test”.  If it is used as a noun then it carries the similar meaning as “scale” mentioned below.

Scale: measurement format for each questions in a questionnaire e.g. the measurement format for respondents to fill up can be ordinal scale e.g. Likert-scale, interval scale e.g. bipolar semantic differential scale etc.

Inventory: a complete list of questions within a questionnaire for the purpose to measure a variable.

Questionnaire: an instrument either in hardcopy or online to collect data e.g. survey questionnaire filled up by respondents of a research.  A complete questionnaire might consists of few inventories to measure different variables.

Scale: Defines a measuring instrument that is designed to measure a specific feature and whose units are always the same

Questionnaire:It is a list of questions prepared according to a certain plan to understand the feelings, thoughts and experiences of certain people on a subject