Inmathematics andempirical science,quantification (orquantitation) is the act ofcounting andmeasuring that maps human senseobservations andexperiences intoquantities. Quantification in this sense is fundamental to thescientific method.
Some measure of the undisputed general importance of quantification in thenatural sciences can be gleaned from the following comments:
This meaning of quantification comes under the heading ofpragmatics.[clarification needed]
In some instances in the natural sciences a seemingly intangible concept may be quantified by creating a scale—for example, apain scale in medical research, or a discomfort scale at the intersection ofmeteorology andhuman physiology such as theheat index measuring the combined perceived effect of heat andhumidity, or thewind chill factor measuring the combined perceived effects of cold and wind.
In thesocial sciences, quantification is an integral part ofeconomics andpsychology. Both disciplines gather data – economics byempirical observation and psychology byexperimentation – and both usestatistical techniques such asregression analysis to draw conclusions from it.
In some instances a seemingly intangible property may be quantified by asking subjects to rate something on ascale—for example, ahappiness scale or aquality-of-life scale—or by the construction of a scale by the researcher, as with theindex of economic freedom. In other cases, an unobservable variable may be quantified by replacing it with aproxy variable with which it is highly correlated—for example, per capitagross domestic product is often used as a proxy forstandard of living orquality of life.
Frequently in the use of regression, the presence or absence of a trait is quantified by employing adummy variable, which takes on the value 1 in the presence of the trait or the value 0 in the absence of the trait.
Quantitative linguistics is an area oflinguistics that relies on quantification. For example,[7] indices ofgrammaticalization ofmorphemes, such asphonological shortness, dependence on surroundings, and fusion with the verb, have been developed and found to be significantly correlated across languages with stage of evolution of function of the morpheme.
The ease of quantification is one of the features used to distinguishhard and soft sciences from each other. Scientists often consider hard sciences to be more scientific or rigorous, but this is disputed by social scientists who maintain that appropriate rigor includes the qualitative evaluation of the broader contexts of qualitative data. In somesocial sciences such associology, quantitative data are difficult to obtain, either because laboratory conditions are not present or because the issues involved are conceptual but not directly quantifiable. Thus in these casesqualitative methods are preferred.[citation needed]
