Scales of Measurements Flashcards
What are four levels of measurement?
Nominal, interval, ordinal and ratio?
Nominal level
Means “ in name only”
Deals with names, categories or labels e.g., eye colour, favorite food
Ordinal level
Data at this level can be ordered, but no differences between the data can be taken that are meaningful
Interval level
Deals with data that can be ordered, and which differences between data does make sense.
Data at this level does not have a starting point, no zero
E.g., Celsius temperarure
Ratio level
Similar to interval but has a starting point of zero.
E.g., height, weight, distance, kelvin temperature
The teacher of a class of third graders records the eye color of each student
Nominal
The teacher of a class of third graders record the letter grade for mathematics for each student
Ordinal
The teacher of a class of third graders records the percentage that each student got correct on the last science test
Ratio
A meterologist compiles a list of tenperatures in degress Celsius of the month May
Interval
A meterologist compiles a list of tenperatures in degress Fahrenheit of the month May
Interval
A meterologist compiles a list of tenperatures in degrees Kelvin of the month May
Ratio
A film critic lists the top 50 greatest movies of all time
Ordinal
A car magazine lists the most expensive cars for 2012
Ratio
The roster of a basketbal team lists the jersey number for each of the players
Nominal
A local animal shelter keeps track of the breeds of dogs that come in
Nominal
A local shelter keeps track of the weight of dogs coming in
Ratio
Categorical variables are categaorized into
Nominal variables
Ordinal variables
Dichotomous variables
Nominal variables
Variables that have more or two categories, but which do not have an intrinsic order.
Example, types of property into bungalow, houses, condos and co-ops
Dichotomous
Nominal variables which have only two categories or levels. For example, sex which is male or female
Ordinal variables
Variables that have two or more categories just like nominal variables but can be ranked.
E.g., likert scale
Continous variables
Interval or ratio variables
Interval variables
Interval variables are variables for which their central characteristic is that they can be measured along a continuum and they have a numerical value
Ratio variables
Ratio variables are interval variables but with the additional condition that zero of the measurement indicates none of the measurement
