Part A (Q2): What is Scaling?

Scaling is the methodological process of measuring or ordering entities with respect to quantitative attributes or traits. In social work research, it involves assigning numbers or symbols to subjective, intangible concepts—such as attitudes, feelings, opinions, or behaviors—to quantify them for statistical analysis.

Significance: Social workers often deal with abstract concepts like "marital satisfaction," "depression severity," or "community cohesion." You cannot measure these with a ruler. Scaling techniques (like the Likert scale, where respondents rate their agreement from 1 to 5) allow researchers to translate these subjective human experiences into objective, quantifiable data that can be aggregated, compared, and tracked over time.