scholarly journals Implications Of The Homomorphism Definition Of Measurement On Accounting Measurement Theory

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saratiel Wedzerai Musvoto
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Measurement ◽  
Measurement Theory ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Accounting Measurement ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
Measurement Concept ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Measurement Practices

This study compares the principles of the representational theory of measurement with accounting practices to decipher the reasons creating a gap between accounting measurement practices and the scientific practices of measurement. Representational measurement establishes measurement in social scientific disciplines such as accounting. The discussion in this study focuses on the need for accounting to provide principled arguments to justify its status as a measurement discipline. The arguments made highlight the need for possible modifications of the accounting measurement concept to deal with issues that are at least partially philosophical in nature, such as the concept of error and the passing of value representations from finite to continuum. These problems are primarily conceptual in nature. They indicate that accounting is far from a measurement discipline. Their resolution could require major changes to the accounting concept of measurement.

scholarly journals Rethinking The Going Concern Assumption As A Pre-Condition For Accounting Measurement

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Saratiel Wedzerai Musvoto ◽  
Daan G Gouws
Keyword(s):  
Measurement Theory ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Foreseeable Future ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Going Concern ◽  
Accounting Measurement ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
Social Scientific

This study compares the principles of the going concern concept against the principles of representational measurement to determine if it is possible to establish foundations of accounting measurement with the going concern concept as a precondition. Representational measurement theory is a theory that establishes measurement in social scientific disciplines such as accounting. The going concern assumption is prescribed as one of the preconditions for measuring the attributes of the elements of the financial statements of an entity that is expected to continue in business for the foreseeable future. Studies in accounting measurement have so far not succeeded in establishing foundations of measurements under going concern. The findings of this study suggest that the going concern assumption is anti-measurement in nature. Consequently, the findings suggest that financial statements be prepared on a basis that distinguishes quantifications produced under conditions that facilitate accounting measurement from those that do not.

scholarly journals The Accounting Concept Of Measurement And The Thin Line Between Representational Measurement Theory And The Classical Theory Of Measurement

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Charmaine Scrimnger-Christian ◽  
S. Wedzerai Musvoto
Keyword(s):  
Classical Theory ◽  
Theory Of Measurement ◽  
Measurement Theory ◽  
Experimental Science ◽  
Accounting Measurement ◽  
Classical Measurement ◽  
Measurement Concept ◽  
Theory Research ◽  
Two Sides ◽  
Made In

The purpose of this study is to discuss a possible way forward in accounting measurement. It also highlights the importance of understanding the lack of appreciation given by the accounting researchers to the distinction between representation measurement theory and the axioms of quantity on which the classical theory of measurement is based. For long, research in measurement theory has classified representational measurement as nothing but applications of the axioms of quantity. It was believed that there is in existence a single approach to measurement theory. However, recent studies in measurement theory have shown that there are two sides to measurement theory; one side at the interface with experimental science which is emphasized in representational measurement and the other side at the interface with quantitative theory which is emphasized in the classical measurement theory. Research in accounting measurement has concentrated on establishing a representational based accounting measurement theory. This has been done under the premise that no measurement theory exists in the discipline. Thus, this viewpoint neglects the concepts of classical measurement theory that already exists in the accounting discipline. Moreover, this created misunderstandings in accounting with regard to whether a theory of measurement exists in the discipline. This study highlights that the accounting concept of measurement was conceived under the principles of the classical measurement theory. Therefore this reason, it is suggested that research and improvements to the accounting measurement concept should be made in the light of the already existing principles of the classical theory of measurement in which the accounting concept of measurement was conceived.

scholarly journals The Role Of Measurement Theory In Supporting The Objectives Of The Financial Statements

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Saratiel Weszerai Musvoto
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Theory Of Measurement ◽  
Measurement Theory ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Measurement Process ◽  
Measurement Information ◽  
Accounting Measurement ◽  
The Social ◽  
Complete Measurement

This study emphasises the fact that the objectives of the financial statements are not compatible with the principles that establish measurement in the social sciences, and that they therefore cannot be considered to be measurement objectives. The concept of measurement presupposes the comprehension of the principal state and consequently the objectives of a measurement discipline only make measurement sense in the presence of a theory of measurement in which they are contained. Currently, accounting is considered to be a measurement discipline with complete measurement objectives, even in the absence of a measurement theory that incorporates the objectives of the measurement process. In this study the principles of the representational theory of measurement (a theory that establishes measurement in the social sciences) are used to emphasise that the objectives of the financial statements are not measurement objectives unless they are supported by a theory of measurement. Hence the financial statements cannot contain measurement information until a theory of measurement is established that incorporates the objectives of the accounting measurement processes.

From Utility Measurement to the Representational Theory of Measurement

2018 ◽  
pp. 247-260
Author(s):  
Ivan Moscati
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Measurement ◽  
Measurement Theory ◽  
Value Theory ◽  
Utility Analysis ◽  
Utility Measurement ◽  
History Of ◽  
Theory Project ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Dominant Theory

Chapter 15 offers a conclusion to the history of measurement theory by reconstructing the origins of the representational theory of measurement in the early work of Patrick Suppes. In particular, the chapter shows that Suppes’s superseding of the unit-based understanding of measurement that he had embraced in the early 1950s, his endorsement of a liberal definition of measurement à la Stanley Smith Stevens in the mid-1950s, his conceiving of the project of an axiomatic underpinning of this notion of measurement in the late 1950s, and the realization of this project during the 1960s all have their origins in the utility analysis research he conducted from 1953 to 1957 within the Stanford Value Theory Project. The representational theory of measurement received full-fledged expression in Foundations of Measurement (1971), a book coauthored by Suppes, Duncan Luce, David Krantz, and Amos Tversky, which quickly became the dominant theory of measurement.

scholarly journals Reactivity in social scientific experiments: what is it and how is it different (and worse) than a Placebo effect?

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
María Jiménez-Buedo
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Placebo Effect ◽  
Placebo Effects ◽  
Causal Inferences ◽  
Scientific Experiments ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
The Many ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
In Virtue Of

AbstractReactivity, or the phenomenon by which subjects tend to modify their behavior in virtue of their being studied upon, is often cited as one of the most important difficulties involved in social scientific experiments, and yet, there is to date a persistent conceptual muddle when dealing with the many dimensions of reactivity. This paper offers a conceptual framework for reactivity that draws on an interventionist approach to causality. The framework allows us to offer an unambiguous definition of reactivity and distinguishes it from placebo effects. Further, it allows us to distinguish between benign and malignant forms of the phenomenon, depending on whether reactivity constitutes a danger to the validity of the causal inferences drawn from experimental data.

Socially constructing safety

2009 ◽  
Vol 62 (9) ◽  
pp. 1259-1266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Turner ◽  
Garry C. Gray
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Behavior ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Organizational Conditions ◽  
Cultural Considerations ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
Social Scientific

Social scientific perspectives on occupational safety largely characterize it as a disembodied, tangible, and easily quantifiable phenomenon. Recent research efforts have focused on exploring organizational conditions that predict occupational safety outcomes, resulting in top-down, often de-contextualized prescriptions about how to control safety in the workplace (e.g. ‘management should promote a culture of safety’). There is growing interest in how social processes of organizing, wider socio-cultural considerations, and the situated production of safety can contribute to the appreciation of the ‘lived experience’ of life and death at work. This Special Issue focuses on the socially constructed nature of occupational safety and the insight it provides in understanding broader social and organizational processes. In this article, we first describe how various social scientific disciplines share an interest in occupational safety and organizational behavior, yet rarely speak to another. We provide an overview of the five articles that comprise the Special Issue, and briefly highlight some ways forward for studying safety in organizations.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Durba Mitra
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
Colonial Studies ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
History Of ◽  
Social Scientific

This introductory chapter traces the history of the concept of the sexually deviant female in colonial India. It first takes a look at how the figure of the prostitute appears across different archives from colonial India and within analyses of Indian social life. The chapter then shows how colonial studies on the nature of Indian society were to become the empirical basis for universalist theories of comparative societies. Indeed, the colonial state in India was, at its inception, an experiment in new forms of scientific and social scientific practices that were to influence state practices and the formation of disciplinary knowledge in the colony and metropole. At the heart of these sciences of society was a concern about structuring, tracing, and mapping the social world of colonial India through the assessment of women's sexuality. These histories reveal the way key debates about gender, caste, communal difference, and social hierarchy in India became objects of social scientific analysis through the description and evaluation of female sexuality. And, as the chapter shows, this social scientific imaginary had extraordinary reach.

Science and Identity in Social Work

2019 ◽  
pp. 43-56
Author(s):  
John Brekke
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Behavior Change ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Disciplinary Identity ◽  
Problems In Living ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter offers a definition of science that encompasses the interacting elements of theory, prediction, observation, and testing. The chapter also discusses disciplines and professions and their boundaries, capitalizing on the work of Abbott and Jacobs on interdisciplinarity. Disciplines are essential for science and learning, and interdisciplinarity is sometimes crucial to solving vexing problems in science—but “inter-” or “trans-” disciplinary work is only viable in the context of disciplines and disciplinary identity. A crucial linking construct in social work science is technology, which is the application of scientific knowledge to human life. In terms of identity, social work science has a dual focus on scientific understanding as well as on using and developing methods (technologies) for human behavior change on multiple levels. In many areas of society, the existence of scientific disciplines that merge with professions forms the nexus of understanding and technology for solving “problems in living.”

Measurement, theory of

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Suppes
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Theory Of Measurement ◽  
Measurement Theory ◽  
Zero Point ◽  
Scratch Test ◽  
Physical Object ◽  
Measurement Procedure ◽  
Random Errors ◽  
Empirical Procedure ◽  
Intensive Quantities

A conceptual analysis of measurement can properly begin by formulating the two fundamental problems of any measurement procedure. The first problem is that of representation, justifying the assignment of numbers to objects or phenomena. We cannot literally take a number in our hands and ’apply’ it to a physical object. What we can show is that the structure of a set of phenomena under certain empirical operations and relations is the same as the structure of some set of numbers under corresponding arithmetical operations and relations. Solution of the representation problem for a theory of measurement does not completely lay bare the structure of the theory, for there is often a formal difference between the kind of assignment of numbers arising from different procedures of measurement. This is the second fundamental problem, determining the scale type of a given procedure. Counting is an example of an absolute scale. The number of members of a given collection of objects is determined uniquely. In contrast, the measurement of mass or weight is an example of a ratio scale. An empirical procedure for measuring mass does not determine the unit of mass. The measurement of temperature is an example of an interval scale. The empirical procedure of measuring temperature by use of a thermometer determines neither a unit nor an origin. In this sort of measurement the ratio of any two intervals is independent of the unit and zero point of measurement. Still another type of scale is one which is arbitrary except for order. Moh’s hardness scale, according to which minerals are ranked in regard to hardness as determined by a scratch test, and the Beaufort wind scale, whereby the strength of a wind is classified as calm, light air, light breeze, and so on, are examples of ordinal scales. A distinction is made between those scales of measurement which are fundamental and those which are derived. A derived scale presupposes and uses the numerical results of at least one other scale. In contrast, a fundamental scale does not depend on others. Another common distinction is that between extensive and intensive quantities or scales. For extensive quantities like mass or distance an empirical operation of combination can be given which has the structural properties of the numerical operation of addition. Intensive quantities do not have such an operation; typical examples are temperature and cardinal utility. A widespread complaint about this classical foundation of measurement is that it takes too little account of the analysis of variability in the quantity measured. One important source is systematic variability in the empirical properties of the object being measured. Another source lies not in the object but in the procedures of measurement being used. There are also random errors which can arise from variability in the object, the procedures or the conditions surrounding the observations.

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