Statistical information

It including numbers and sets of numbers has specific qualities that are of interest to
researchers. These qualities, including magnitude, equal intervals, and absolute zero,
determine what scale of measurement is being used and therefore what statistical
procedures are best.
Magnitude

It refers to the ability to know if one score is greater than, equal to, or less than
another score.
Equal intervals

It Means that the possible scores are each an equal distance from each other.
Absolute zero

It refers to a point where none of the scale exists or where a score of zero can be
assigned.4
Levels of Measurement

The Level of measurement of a variable is a critical factor in determining what kinds

of tools may be used to describe the variable, and what means of analysis may be used
for inference about the variable. In short, the level of measurement determines or
constrains the types of descriptive and inferential statistics that may be applied to the
variable.1

Scales of Measurement

Scale
Level

Scale of
Measurement

Scale
Qualities

Example(s)

Magnitude
4

Ratio

Equal
Intervals

Age, Height, Weight,

Percentage

Absolute Zero

Magnitude
3

Interval

Ordinal

Magnitude

Likert Scale, Anything rank

ordered

Nominal

None

Names, Lists of words

Equal
Intervals

Temperature

There are four levels of measurements.

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.

Nominal
Dichotomous (often used as Nominal)
Ordinal
Interval
Ratio(Often used interval)
For each level of measurement there is a statistical method.2

Nominal

Nominal variables are those which can be named, but not quantified.2 They has two
or more categories, but there is no intrinsic order to the categories. There is no way to
order these in lowest or highest.3 they can be code in number, but magnitude of
assigned number is arbitrary, if value of number changed it will not change
inference.2

Examples
g.
h.
i.
j.

Religion (Protestant Catholic, Hebrew, Buddhist, etc)

Race (Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic,Asian, etc)
Linguistic Group
Marital Status (Married, Single, Divorced)

Difference between ordinal and nominal

In nominal there is no order in variable but if order exist than it will be ordinal.3
Ordinal

With ordinal variables, there is a rough quantitative sense to their measurement, but
the differences between scores are not necessarily equal. They are thus in order, but
not fixed.2
You can order and rank the dada, you can say a measure is lower or higher, but you
cannot say how much higher or lower.1
Examples
1. Economic Status (Low, Medium, High) ordered or rank but spacing between them
will not be constant.3
2. Ranking of employee on performance base (1st, 2nd, 3rd) but spacing between first
and second cannot certainly equal.2
3. Evaluation of employee performance (High, Low, Medium) but cannot be of equal
interval.2
4. Likert Scale (Agree, strongly agreed)Used to check the validity of questionaire2
5. Prefer flavor of ice cream1
Interval

Grouping, ranking and includes exact distance between measures.1 It dont have zero
at start.1

Examples
k.
l.
m.
n.

Money2
Education (in year)2
People2
Annual Income2

Annual income that is measured in dollars, and we have three people who make
$10,000, $15,000 and $20,000. The second person makes $5,000 more than the first
person and $5,000 less than the third person, and the size of these intervals is the
same. If there were two other people who make $90,000 and $95,000, the size of that
interval between these two people is also the same ($5,000). 3
Ratio

Ratio variables on the other hand are at the other end of the scale. Ratio variables are
numbers with some base value. Percentages are perhaps the best indicator here.2
Ratio level data are said to be at the highest level and can be grouped, ranked, and the
exact distance between measures determined. Also, Ratio level measures contain an
absolute "0". By having an absolute "0" in your measurement "scale", you are able to
describe data in terms of ratios.1

Examples

Nominal
6. Credit Card Number (Not Greater than other)
7. Social security Number5
8. Employees personal Characteristic 6
9. Employee Diversity,(American, Australian, Britsh)7
10. Material Status of employee in organization8
Ordinal
11. Ranking of top psychology school of USA 5
12. Age of employee in organization (Young vs old or medium)7
13. Hierarchy of levels with respect to the construct of effectiveness.
(Rank1,Rank2,Rank3)9
14. Attitude of employees10 Princes
15. IQ (Some time)10
Interval10
16. Age in Years
17. Time taken to complete a statistic assignment
18. Number of week spend on vocations
19. Dollar value of goods purchase and sale
20. Number of letter on page, number of people in HRM class etc
Ratio 10
1. The Blishen scale of socioeco-nomic statu

Reference

1.Statistical survival Kit, for HRD practices,

http://www.internetraining.com/Statkit/StatKit.htm
2. Level of Management,
http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/duval/ps601/Notes/Levels_of_Measure.html
3. What is the difference between categorical, ordinal and interval variables?
http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/mult_pkg/whatstat/nominal_ordinal_interval.htm
4. Research Method,
http://allpsych.com/researchmethods/measurementscales.html
5. Introduction to State, Chapter 1, https://docs.google.com/viewer?
a=v&q=cache:F1gDGIlWIOEJ:www.sagepub.com/upmdata/40006_Chapter1.pdf+nominal+variable+examples+in+social+sciences
&hl=en&gl=pk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgVjeVGkdaNMa2d7tkGRJEgkSNXWl6fg1eASD83saEvQtg023Iud0L4uiZGy2CpZXlagmPkBb3mpUJxAAu3tt6p2fwrbnGhLAQrOBdO8N4kMpUspWs9fgAIiMfvrrxu8JMwV&sig=AHIEtbTPZ
C-ebeSLObKCCAQWUQw5PKe43g
6. type of Nominal variable, http://www.ehow.com/list_6456092_typesnominal-variables.html
7. Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_measurement
8. Type of variable,
http://www.unesco.org/webworld/idams/advguide/Chapt1_3.htm
9. Basic concept in research and data analysis, Chapter 1,
https://docs.google.com/viewer?
a=v&q=cache:p7xRthsHLU8J:support.sas.com/publishing/pubcat/chaps/5981
4.pdf+nominal+variable+examples+in+management+sciences&hl=en&gl=
pk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjPK8WWUp8nFToHL5tpbFBdVR8l8o5Sv6uql6S9ErBb
ptxcXDRCz0F1HIAbPAHy-rNA4LuxljSmf9d6HSVnCfgmVG9FdDCU8dMOxywMjdtY-zektm6quKLoSy3fE8HbvCfCo9&sig=AHIEtbQgnvB7rcLW2PyBf2IMxgC9gSeySw
10. type of variable, chapter 3, https://docs.google.com/viewer?
a=v&q=cache:IpI8jwG_HMJ:uregina.ca/~gingrich/ch3.pdf+interval+variable+example+in+s
ocial+sciences&hl=en&gl=pk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShqnXcrzNtC3msOhdPD
XdQM1wjFrG4jL9P4cTAYl90vSNY7smjkYLAjv5csZzx180omBoCGmDY0QzEQGW
IPM9zLT6JBUsWjWs5wVxdua_YMEYtR3noSWTFxA0hYiCDIS4QH1S2D&sig=AHIE
tbSdr_zcga3_IPa0aa8zSBf04WZwUw