Conceptual and Methodological Issues Related to Welfare Assessment: A Framework for Measurement

Abstract

In all facets of animal welfare, as in human health and quality of life, the unambiguous and valid measurement of the key attributes is of critical importance. Welfare is a complex construct and in this paper we present a methodological framework for the development of a composite animal welfare scale based on psychometric and metrological principles for scale creation developed in human medicine and Psychology. We indicate how these principles can be applied and how the resulting scale would then be validated and tested.