A primary goal of integral field spectroscopic (IFS) surveys is to provide a statistical census of galaxies classified by their internal kinematics. As a result, the observational spin parameter, $lambda_R$, has become one of the most popular methods of quantifying the relative importance of velocity dispersion and rotation in supporting a galaxys inner structure. The goal of this paper is to examine the relationship between the observationally deduced $lambda_R$ and one of the most commonly used theoretical spin parameters in the literature, the Bullock et al. (2001) $lambda$. Using a set of $N$-body realisations of galaxies from which we construct mock IFS observations, we measure $lambda_R$ as an observer would, incorporating the effects of beam smearing and seeing conditions. Assuming parameters typical of current IFS surveys, we confirm that there are strong positive correlations between $lambda_R$ and measurement radius, and strong negative correlations between $lambda_R$ and size of the PSF, for late-type galaxies; these biases can be reduced using a recently proposed empirical correction. Once observational biases are corrected for, we find that $lambda_R$ provides a good approximation to $sim sqrt{3}/2 ; lambda(rm R_{rm eff})$, where $lambda$ is evaluated for the galactic stellar component within 1 R$_{rm eff}$.
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