level_of_variables
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====== Level of measurement - English ====== | ====== Level of measurement - English ====== | ||
Measurement is the process of assigning numbers to objects in such a way that properties of the objects are reflected in the numbers themselves. There are four different measures. | Measurement is the process of assigning numbers to objects in such a way that properties of the objects are reflected in the numbers themselves. There are four different measures. | ||
- | * NOMINAL -- Nominal measures have only the characteristics of exhaustivenss and exclusiveness. Examples include gender, religions, affiliation, | + | |
- | * ORDINAL -- Ordinal measures, on the other hand, represent relatively more or less of the variable. Examples might be social class, conservatism, | + | * ORDINAL -- Ordinal measures, on the other hand, represent relatively more or less of the variable. Examples might be social class, conservatism, |
- | * INTERVAL -- Interval measures, as you guess, provides the distances among attributes. The distances are meaningful, which means the distance between the attributes can be expressed and understood as the unit of the attributes. | + | * INTERVAL -- Interval measures, as you guess, provides the distances among attributes. The distances are meaningful, which means the distance between the attributes can be expressed and understood as the unit of the attributes. |
- | * RATIO -- Ratio measures have the same characteristics as Interval measures do. In addition to that it has a meaningful zero point (or absolute zero), which represent " | + | * RATIO -- Ratio measures have the same characteristics as Interval measures do. In addition to that it has a meaningful zero point (or absolute zero), which represent " |
Why such distinctions? | Why such distinctions? | ||
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As you can see, more information is added into the higher level of measurement. We may think that it would be always better if we use the highest level of measurement -- when we measure a variable. However, many variables used in social research are in fact ordinal, or even nominal -- and sometimes interval. The only convenience for the higher level of measurement is that it can go down. That is, you can use interval variable as nominal variable. You cannot do this in the reversed way, however. The main reason for the distinction is that, as mentioned before, it helps us incorporate statistical methods such as chi-square test, t-test, regression analysis, etc. | As you can see, more information is added into the higher level of measurement. We may think that it would be always better if we use the highest level of measurement -- when we measure a variable. However, many variables used in social research are in fact ordinal, or even nominal -- and sometimes interval. The only convenience for the higher level of measurement is that it can go down. That is, you can use interval variable as nominal variable. You cannot do this in the reversed way, however. The main reason for the distinction is that, as mentioned before, it helps us incorporate statistical methods such as chi-square test, t-test, regression analysis, etc. | ||
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- | CategoryResearchMethods | ||