From Mirriam-Webster:

Main Entry:

1 sub·jec·tive

Pronunciation:

(ˌ)səb-ˈjek-tiv

Function:

adjective

Date:

15th century

1: of, relating to, or constituting a subject: as a obsolete : of, relating to, or characteristic of one that is a subject especially in lack of freedom of action or in submissiveness b: being or relating to a grammatical subject; especially : nominative

2: of or relating to the essential being of that which has substance, qualities, attributes, or relations

3 a: characteristic of or belonging to reality as perceived rather than as independent of mind : phenomenal — compare objective 1b

b: relating to or being experience or knowledge as conditioned by personal mental characteristics or states

4 a (1): peculiar to a particular individual : personal < subjective judgments> (2): modified or affected by personal views, experience, or background <a subjective account of the incident>

b: arising from conditions within the brain or sense organs and not directly caused by external stimuli < subjective sensations>

c: arising out of or identified by means of one's perception of one's own states and processes <a subjective symptom of disease> — compare objective 1c

5: lacking in reality or substance : illusory

— sub·jec·tive·ly adverb

— sub·jec·tive·ness noun

—sub·jec·tiv·i·ty -jek-ˈti-və-tē noun

I think that some are you are about to be subjected to your first exposure to my obsession with definitions.

When I was first exposed to the concept of Gross National Happiness, I thought it was a clever play on words. As I delved it to it more as a part of this research, I became disenamored with the term. Part of that came as a result of imprecise definitions. Part of it came from what I have a hard time calling anything but subjective as in 4a2 - modified or affected by personal views, experience, or background.

I have no problem subjective information. I have, in fact, come to rely on it more and more in the most important areas of my life. What I object to is (what appears to me to be) arbitrary "semi-quantitative" interpretation of subjective data. Interpretations that are not qualified with even a 'I believe that the following can be interpreted from the data.' The ratings of the Thai GNH survey have been used to indicate a measure of concern for the King![#] I am absolutely NOT saying that Thais' do not love and totally adore their King. But I can not see how the GNH poll can be specifically interpreted with that!

Enrico Giovannini, the chief statistician for the OECD said "Some of these measures are based on solid statistical evidence, others on weak data or woolly methodologies." [#] If you have people answer on a scale of 1-5 how happy they are, of what use is the number? It may be accurate. It may be precise. It may be lots of things, but what does it mean and of what use is it?

The Istanbul Agreement of 2007 really has hit it on the head. I believe it was Peter Drucker who said that if it can't be measured, it can't be managed. [#] If we want to manage development (and I can't believe that we don't) then we need to carefully define it and identify how to measure its aspects so that we can see if we are doing it right and where we are having successes and failures.

Save me from subjective results and ill defined words!

</rant>

I was surprised to have access to this group. I suppose you can ban me at any time, but also you can just tell me when I'm not being helpful.

I was surprised when studying for an education degree that the course in Educational Evaluation was one of the most challenging and interesting to me.

In terms of instruments for evaluation reliability is a quantitative measure whereas validity is a qualitative measure. Both are very important, but certainty about validity is much trickier than for reliability.

My sense is that far from needing to be saved from subjective results, there's no choice but to go deeper down that rabbit hole. As far as it goes with ill-defined words, precision is something to strive hard for, but the problem comes with trying to nail down creative and growing processes. Some real and important qualities will never be precisely defined because they are growing qualities.

Other words are not able to be defined sufficiently; for example left and right. As I say, precision in definitions is important, I just think there's a wall you eventually run up against. And facing that wall is the only way to make progress in your tasks at hand.

I do so admire Peter Drucker, but his aphorism distracts from this problem I'm alluding to. Measurement is important, but somethings cannot be measured because they're not "stuff" of matter and weight. That's not to say there's nothing we can say, rather to suggest there's some other ways besides measures.