Monothetic and Polythetic Typologies and their Relation to Conceptualization, Measurement and Scaling

Abstract

Past studies of the relationship between conceptualization and measurement in typology construction have depended upon the over-simplified heuristic-empirical (H-E) distinction. This paper presents the classification-identification and monothetic-polythetic distinctions. These are used not only to construct an extension of the H-E distinction (heuristic, empirical, classical and reduced classical types), but also to examine previously neglected relationships between types, scales, and forms of property-space reduction. Specifically, I show that all heuristic types and all categories of simple order scales (e.g., Guttman scales) are monothetic, while all empirical types and categories of partial order scales (e.g., Likert scales) are polythetic. I also show that a partial order scale can be constructed from a monothetic typology through Lazarsfeld's arbitrary numerical reduction, and a simple order scale can be constructed from a monothetic typology through functional reduction. Four characteristics of Weber's rational administration (as presented by Udy, 1958) are used to construct examples of the various typologies and scales.