The document discusses various techniques for measurement and scaling in research. It begins by defining measurement as assigning numbers or symbols to object characteristics according to rules, while scaling creates a continuum to locate measured objects. There are four primary scales of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio. Nominal involves labels, ordinal involves ranking, interval involves equal distances between numbers, and ratio has a true zero point. Comparative techniques like paired comparisons and rank ordering involve direct object comparisons, while noncomparative techniques scale objects independently. Constant sum and Likert scaling are provided as examples.