Measurement Scale
MA III SOCIAL STATISTICS
Measurement
Scale
Measurement means
• assigning numbers or other symbols to observation or objects according to certain pre-
specified rules.
Scale
• Scaling is a process of measuring
Different rules leads to different kind of scale and different kind of measurement for example
liquid measure in litter milliliter etc
Solid measure in kilogram
Measurement • Four types of measurement scale is defined
Nominal
Scale Ordinal
Interval
Ratio
Which can be characterized on the basis of four
different ways
Description
Order
Distance
Origin
Measurement Description
• By description, we mean the unique labels or
Scale descriptors that are used to designate each value of the
scale. All scales possess description
Order
• By order, we mean the relative sizes or positions of the
descriptors. Order is denoted by descriptors such as
greater than, less than, and equal to.
Measurement Distance
• By distance means that absolute differences between
Scale the scale descriptors are known and may be expressed
in units.
Origin
• By origin characteristic means that the scale has a
unique or fixed beginning or true zero point.
Measurement • Scales of Measurement
• Nominal
Scale • Ordinal
Qualitative measures – classify into nonnumeric
categories
• Interval
• Ratio
Quantitative measures – measurement is numerical
Nominal Nominal Scale
Scale • Weakest of four measurement scale
• The nominal scale classify one object to another on the
basis of description, labels, names, qualitative
categories
• Assign responses to different categories
• No numerical difference between categories
• Used for identification
Nominal Examples
• Gender
Scale • Marital status
• State of residence
• Zip code
• Student ID
• Religion
• Specialization
• Nationality
Ordinal Scale • Ordinal Scale
• Includes the characteristics of nominal scale
• Objects or events measured on the basis of relative
importance
• Set of categories that are ordered from least to most
• Don’t know numerical distance from each category to
the next
Ordinal Scale • Examples
• Miss America results –
first place, runner-up, second, third
• Military rank
• Letter grade in class
• Degrees held Medical condition (satisfactory, serious,
guarded, critical)
• Rank order of your preference from 1 to 4
• Rating
Interval Scale Interval Scale
• Scale with values, and there is the same numerical
distance between each value
• This scale has an arbitrary zero point (no true
meaningful zero point)
Interval Scale • Examples
• Current temperature
• Many behavioural science questionnaires
• IQ
• Performance of student
Ratio Scale Ratio Scale
Scale with scores where there is the same numerical
distance between each score
The scale has a true, meaningful zero point
Only scale that allows you to make ratio comparisons,
Ratio Scale • Examples
• Weight of a package of candy
• Number of times you return to a restaurant after
visiting it the first time
• Amount of money in your checking account
• Number of questions correct on a quiz
• Distance from Lahore to Sargodha
• Age, height, time, salary, heart beat
