Lecture:

Measurement Scales

From various sources

• Measure is important in research.
• Measure aims to ascertain the dimension,
quantity, or capacity of the behaviors or events
that researchers want to explore.
• According to Maxim (1999), measurement is a
process of mapping empirical phenomena with
using system of numbers.
 Variable

• A variable (in statistics) is a characteristic,

attribute, or measurement that can have different
"values".
• Data are the values that a variable (or variables)
actually assume.
• Generally, a variable will describe the members of
some population in some way.
• Some examples of the types of variables
encountered in a statistics class:
 a person's age in years
 the length of a fish in cm.
 the temperature of a classroom in degrees
Celsius
 the letter grade earned in a course
 a movie's rating (from 1 to 5 stars)
 the model of a car
 Levels of Measurement
• Level of measurement or scale of measure is a classification that
describes the nature of information within the values assigned to
variables.
• Types
1. NOMINAL LEVEL
2. ORDINAL LEVEL
3. INTERVAL LEVEL
4. RATIO LEVEL
 Nominal level

• Nominal Scale: Definition

• A Nominal Scale is a measurement scale, in which numbers serve as

“tags” or “labels” only, to identify or classify an object. A nominal
scale measurement normally deals only with non-
numeric (Qualitative) variables or where numbers have no value.

• In nominal measurement the numerical values just

"name" the attribute uniquely. No ordering of the cases
is implied.
• Characteristics of Nominal Scale
• In nominal scale a variable is divided into
two or more categories,
• for example, agree/disagree, yes or no etc.
It’s is a measurement mechanism in which
answer to a particular question can fall into
either category.
• Nominal scale is qualitative in nature,
which means numbers are used here only
to categorize or identify objects.
 Continue
• In nominal scale, numbers don’t define the characteristics related
to the object, which means each number is assigned to one
object. The only permissible aspect related to numbers in a
nominal scale is “counting.”
• Example Please select the degree of discomfort of the disease:
• 1-Mild
• 2-Moderate
• 3-Severe
• In this particular example, 1=Mild, 2=Moderate, and 3=Severe.
Here numbers are simply used as tags and have no value.
• In nominal scale, it is easy to generate responses using close
ended questions a lot of responses can be collected in short
period of time, which in turn increases reliability.
• Participants are unable to express their degrees of response.
• Nominal scale possesses only the description characteristic which
means it possesses unique labels to identify or delegate values to
the items.
 Continue
• When nominal scale is used for the purpose of identification,
there is a strict one-to-one correlation between an object and the
numeric value assigned to it.
• For example, numbers are written on cars in a racing track. The numbers are
there merely to identify the driver associated with the car, it has nothing to do
with characteristics of the car.
• But when nominal scale is used for the purpose of classification, then the
numbers assigned to the object serve as tags to categorize or arrange objects in
class.
• For example, in the case of a gender scale, an individual can be categorized either
as male or female. In this case, all objects in the category will have the same
number, for example, all males can be no. 1 and all females can be no. 2.
• Please note, that nominal is purely used for counting purposes.
 Continue

• For statistics
• For example, let’s assume we have 5 colors, orange, blue, red, black and
yellow. We could number them in any order we like either 1 to 5 or 5 to
1 in ascending or descending order.
• Here numbers are assigned to colors only to identify them.
• Another example of nominal scale from a research activity point to view
is YES/NO scale. It essentially has no order.
• Some more Examples are…
• How would you describe your behavioral pattern?
• E-Extroverted
• I-Introverted
• A-Ambivert
• What is your gender?
• M-Male
• F-Female
 Nominal Scale Examples
• Could you please select an option from below to describe your
hair color.
• 1-Black
• 2-Brown
• 3-Burgundy
• 4-Auburn
• 5-Other
• There is a subtype in nominal scale with only two categories like
one of the nominal scale examples mentioned above: Gender-
Male/Female.
• Or, do you own an iPhone? The answer could be Yes/No.
 Ordinal level
 “Ordinal” indicates “order”. Ordinal data is quantitative data which
have naturally occurring orders and the difference between is
unknown. It can be named, grouped and also ranked.
 An ordinal scale is used as a comparison parameter to understand
whether the variables are greater or lesser than one another using
sorting.

An example of an ordinal scale used to determine farmers' preferences among 5 brands

of pesticide.

Order of preference Brand

1 Very low
2 Low
3 Medium
4 High
5 Very High
 Ordinal Scale Characteristics
• Along with identifying and describing the magnitude, the ordinal
scale shows the relative rank of variables.
• The properties of the interval are not known.
• Measurement of non-numeric attributes such as frequency,
satisfaction, happiness etc.
• In addition to the information provided by nominal scale ordinal
scale identifies the rank of variables.
• Using this scale, survey makers can analyze the degree of agreement
among respondents with respect to the identified order of the
variables
 Ordinal Scale Examples
• Ranking of high school students – 1st, 3rd, 4th, 10th… Nth. A student
scoring 99/100 would be the 1st rank, another student scoring 92/100
would be 3rd and so on and so forth.
• Rating surveys in restaurants – When a waiter gets a paper or online
survey with a question: “How satisfied are you with the dining
experience?” having 0-10 option, 0 being extremely dissatisfied and 10
being extremely satisfied.
• Likert Scale – The Likert Scale is a variant of the ordinal scale that is used
to calculate customer of employee satisfaction.
 Understanding the socio-economic background of the target audience– Rich,
middle class, poor etc. fall under the ordinal data category.
 The frequency of occurrence – Questions such as
 “How frequently do you have to get the phone repaired?”
 Very often
 Often
 Not Often
 Not at all
 Evaluating the degree of agreement
 State your level of agreement with the company policies:
 Totally agree
 Agree
 Neutral
 Disagree
 Totally disagree
 Understanding preferences: If a marketer conducts surveys to understand
which laptop brand do their respondents do not prefer, they can use the
ordinal scale. Out of the five mentioned laptop brand, rate the order of
preference –
 HP
 Apple
 Lenovo
 Dell
 Acer
 Advantages of Ordinal Scale
 The primary advantage of using ordinal scale is the ease of comparison
between variables.
 Extremely convenient to group the variables after ordering them.
 Effectively used in surveys and questionnaires due to the simplicity of
analysis and categorization.
 Collected responses are easily compared to draw impactful conclusions about
the target audience.
 As the values are indicated in a relative manner using a linear rating scale, the
results are more informative than the nominal scale.
 Interval level
 In interval measurement the distance between attributes does have
meaning.
 A quantitative measurement scale where the difference between 2
variables is meaningful.
 The variables are measured in actuals and not as a relative manner,
where the presence of zero is arbitrary. This means that the
difference between two variables on a scale is an actual and equal
distance.
 It is easy to remember the objective of this scale as “interval”
equates to the interval or distance between 2 variables.
 Another easy way to remember interval scale is that subtraction is
defined between the two variables.
 This is unlike the ratio scale where division is defined between two
variables.
 For example, difference between 68 degrees F and 58 degrees F is the exact
same as 101 degrees F and 91 degrees F. In this example, you can not say that
98 degrees F is double the temperature in terms of “heat” or “cold” of 49
degrees F. This is because there is no absolute zero on the Fahrenheit scale –
that is at zero temperature doesn’t exist.
 Interval data can be discrete – with whole numbers like 8 degrees, 4 years, 2
months etc. or continuous – with fractional numbers like 12.2 degrees, 3.5
weeks or 4.2 miles.
 This statistical method is also known as scale, quantitative or parametric.
 Characteristics of interval scale
 The interval scale is preferred to Nominal scale or ordinal
scale because the latter two are qualitative scales; and the
interval scale is quantitative in the sense that it can quantify
the difference between values.
 You can subtract values between two variables that helps
understand the difference between 2 variables.
 The interval scale allows to calculate the mean and median of
variables.
 This is a preferred scale in statistics because you can assign a
numerical value to any arbitrary assessment such as feelings
or different calendar types like Gregorian, Aztecan, or
Buddhist calendars where the variable inputs are the same
metrics.
 Examples

 You have probably seen the following scales used in a research study –
agreement, satisfaction levels, likelihood or want.
 In the interval scale, the survey is required to be designed in such a way that the
dimension too be measured is scaled appropriately and this can be anchored
ideographically, numerically or verbally.
 Likert Scale
 One of the most commonly used interval scale question, the question is
arranged in a 5 point Likert Scale question where the each emotion is denoted
with a number and the variables range from extremely dissatisfied to extremely
satisfied.
 Ratio level
 Ratio scale is a type of variable measurement scale which is quantitative in
nature.
 Ratio scale allows any researcher to compare the intervals or differences.
 A ratio scale has all the properties of an interval scale.
 Ratio data on the ratio scale has measurable intervals.
 In ratio measurement there is always an absolute zero that is meaningful.
 Ratio scale helps to understand the ultimate-order, interval, values,
and the true zero characteristic is an essential factor in calculating
ratios.
 A ratio scale is the most informative scale as it tends to tell about the
order and number of the object between the values of the scale.
 The most common examples of ratio scale are height, money, age,
weight etc.
 With respect to market research, the common examples that are
observed are sales, price, number of customers, market share etc.
 Characteristics of Ratio Scale
 Ratio scale, as mentioned earlier has an absolute zero
characteristic. It has orders and equally distanced value between
units.
 The zero point characteristic makes it relevant or meaningful to
say, “one object has twice the length of the other” or “is twice as
long.”
 Ratio scale doesn’t have a negative number, unlike interval scale
because of the absolute zero or zero point characteristic.
 To measure any object on a ratio scale, researchers must first see if
the object meets all the criteria for interval scale plus has an
absolute zero characteristic.
 Ratio scale provides unique possibilities for statistical analysis.
 In ratio scale, variables can be systematically added, subtracted,
multiplied and divided (ratio).
 Characteristics of Ratio Scale
 All statistical analysis including mean, mode, the median can
be calculated using ratio scale.
 Ratio scale has ratio scale units which have several unique and
useful properties.
 One of them is they allow unit conversion. Take an example
of calculation of energy flow.
 Several units of energy occur like Joules, gram-calories,
kilogram-calories, British thermal units.
 Still more units of energy per unit time exist kilocalories per
day, liters of oxygen per hour.
 Example of ratio level of measurement
• 1.Please select which age bracket do you fall in?
i. Below 20 years
ii. 21-30 years
iii. 31-40 years
iv. 41-50 years
v. 50 years and above
• 2. What is your height in feet and inches?
i. Less than 5 feet.
ii. 5 feet 1 inch – 5 feet 5 inches
iii. 5 feet 6 inches- 6 feet
iv. More than 6 feet
• 3. What is your weight in kgs?
i. Less than 50 kgs
ii. 51- 70 kgs
iii. 71- 90 kgs
iv. 91-110 kgs
v. More than 110 kgs
• 4. How much time do you spend daily watching television?
i. Less than 2 hours
ii. 3-4 hours
iii. 4-5 hours
iv. 5-6 hours
 Advantages of Ratio Scale
 A ratio scale has a point zero characteristic, where the value of the
variable has no value at all. Weight, height etc can be calculated on
ratio scale because they have a real zero value.
 However, the temperature cannot be measured on this scale
because zero degree Celsius doesn’t mean there is no cold or heat
for that matter. But most of the scientific variables can be measured
on a ratio scale.
 Point zero is an essential characteristic to measure a ratio between
any two variables because in the absence of zero there is no ratio.
 So without a zero would it make any sense to say, “Tom is driving at
a speed of 100 km/hour, which is double the speed at which Thelma
is driving, which is 50 Km/hr?”
 This scale is used to calculate all the scientific variables.
 In fact, in the absence of a ratio scale, scientific variables cannot be
measured.
 Hierarchy implied in the level of measurement
• It's important to recognize that there is a hierarchy implied in the
level of measurement idea.
• At lower levels of measurement, assumptions tend to be less
restrictive and data analyses tend to be less sensitive.
• At each level up the hierarchy, the current level includes all of the
qualities of the one below it and adds something new.
• In general, it is desirable to have a higher level of measurement (e.g.,
interval or ratio) rather than a lower one (nominal or ordinal).
 Incremental Measure Mathematical Advanced Central
progress property operators operations tendency

Classification,
Nominal =, ≠ Grouping Mode
membership
Comparison,
Ordinal >, < Sorting Median
level

Difference, Mean,
Interval +, − Yardstick
affinity Deviation

Geometric
Magnitude, mean,
Ratio ×, / Ratio
amount Coefficient of
variation
Summary
Thank You