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Scales of Measurement

Scales of Measurement

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Anil Chaudhary
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34 views

Scales of Measurement

Scales of Measurement

Uploaded by

Anil Chaudhary
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Scales of Measurement of Data

By,
Assist. Prof. Anil Chaudhary
Measurement of statistical data
i.e. Scales of Measurement
 In statistics, scales of measurement refer to ways in which
variables/numbers are defined and categorized.

 Each scale of measurement has certain property which in turn


determines the appropriateness for the use of certain
statistical analyses.
 Types of the Measurement of statistical data:
1. Nominal scale
2. Ordinal scale
3. Interval scale
4. Ratio scale

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1. Nominal scale
 Nominal measurement consists of assigning items to groups or
categories.
 No quantitative information is conveyed and no ordering of
the items is implied.
 Nominal scales are, therefore, qualitative (i.e. categorical)
rather than quantitative.
 We can only calculate frequency (count), percentage, mode
and chi-square test in the data under nominal scale.
 Arithmetic operation cannot be used (i.e. +, -, x, ÷).
 Examples: Sex, Religion, Disease present/absent, Smoking habit
yes/no etc.

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2. Ordinal scale
 Ordinal measurement consists of assigning items to groups or
categories.
 Also, categories are order in the sense that numbers represent
higher values.

 However, the intervals between the numbers are not


necessarily equal i.e. we cannot measure the difference
between two gaps.

 Here, we can measure in terms of which has less and which has
more of the quality represented by the variable, but still they do
not allow us to say “how much more”.
 By Anil Chaudhary
4 Arithmetic operation cannot be used (i.e. +, -, x, ÷).
 We can calculate frequency (count), percentage, mode, chi-
square test, Rank correlation, Wilcoxon test and Median tests
in the data under ordinal scale.

 Examples:
University Teaching Faculty (Instructor, Lecturer, Asst.
Professor, Associate Professor, Professor);

a five point scale measuring attitudes toward smoking, the


difference between a rating of 2 and a rating of 3 may not
represent the same difference as the difference between a
rating of 4 and a rating of 5;

Stages of cancer (I, II, and III)


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3. Interval scale
 In this scale, one unit on the scale represents the same
magnitude on the characteristics being measured across the
whole range of the scale.
 Interval scales do not have a “true” zero point, and therefore, it
is not possible to make statements about how many times
higher one score is than another. i.e.

 Arithmetic operation: ‘+’ and ‘-’ is possible, but cannot be used


‘x’ and ‘÷’.

 We can calculate frequency (count), percentage, mode, chi-


square test, median tests, t-test, ANOVA, factorial analyses,
correlation test under interval scale.
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Examples:
If anxiety were measured on an interval scale, then a
difference between a score of 10 and a score of 11 would
represent the same difference in anxiety as would a
difference between a score of 50 and a score of 51. However,
without “true” zero point, it is not possible/not valid to say
that a person with a score of 30 was twice as anxious as a
person with a score of 15.

Fahrenheit scale for temperature – Equal differences on this


scale represent equal differences in temperature, but
temperature of 30 degrees is not twice as warm as one of 15
degrees.

Other examples – Celsius scale for temperature, Intelligence


7 etc.
By Anil Chaudhary
4. Ratio scale
 Ratio scales are like interval scales except they have “true”
zero points.
 In this scale, one unit on the scale represents the same
magnitude on the characteristics being measured across the
whole range of the scale.

 Since it has “true” zero, it is possible to make statements about


how many times higher one score is than another. i.e.
Arithmetic operation (i.e. +, -, x, ÷) can be used.

 Also all statistical tests and tools can be used such as frequency,
percentage, mode, median tests, t-test, ANOVA, factorial
analyses, correlation etc.
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Example:

A good example is the Kelvin scale of temperature. This


scale has an absolute zero. Thus, a temperature of 300 Kelvin
is twice as high as a temperature of 150 Kelvin.

Other examples are Height, Weight, Age, etc.

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Thank you!

10 By Anil Chaudhary

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