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Measurment and Scaling
Measurment and Scaling
Measurement
Definitions:
According to Goode and Haff, “Measurement is the method of turning the series of
qualitative facts into a quantitative series.”
Importance of Measurement
Measurement is the fundamental basis of any physical and social science research.
Measurement is the act of providing numbers or symbols to the characteristics of
the events, products, perceptions, or thinking etc. So, it is very important in
research work. Some importance of measurement are as follows:
Helps to identify variables
Helps to measure
Helps to Scientific test
Helps to increase reliability of research.
Measurement provides numbers to the qualitative facts that makes possible to the
use of mathematical and statistical model. The result had drawn from the use of
mathematical and statistical tools remains always more reliable . Thus, it helps to
increase the reliability of research.
Scales of measurement/ Scaling
Sex Scale
Male 1
Female 0
Types of Scale:
Different measurement scales are used on the basis of nature of data. Stevens has
classified the scales of measurement into four types, they are as follows:
Nominal scale
Ordinal scale
Interval scale
Ratio scale
I. Nominal scale
A nominal scale is the lowest level of measurement. Nominal scales are just
names.
In this scale, numbers or the symbols are assigned to objects in order to
distinguish one object from other.
The number or symbols used have no numeric meaning. They cannot be added,
subtracted, multiplied, divided, or ordered (or ranked).
In nominal scale, all the members of a set are assigned the same number or
symbol and two sets are not assigned the same number or symbol.
Nominal scale classifies the events, product, individual or group providing
number or symbol.
For example:
Nominal scales are exhaustive in nature, mutually exclusive, distinct, discrete and
non-continuous.
[ When nominal scale is used for classification purposes, the nominal scale serves as
labels for classes or categories. The classes are mutually exclusive and collectively
exhaustive. The objects in each class are viewed as equivalent with respect to
characteristic represented by the nominal number. All objects in the same class have the
same number and no two classes have the same number. ]
The only permissible operation on numbers in a nominal scale is counting i.e. Counting
of frequency.
Percentage,
Mode,
Chi-square test,
Example: Suppose a hospital wants to know the level of satisfaction of the patients with
nursing services of that hospital. This can be graded as: fully satisfied (1), partially
satisfied(2), not satisfied (3).
It provides more information than nominal scale. It not only classifies the
variables but also categories the variables into different groups in a meaningful
category.
The use of an ordinal scale implies a statement of greater than or less than without
stating how much greater or less.
Median
Mode
Quartiles
Deciles
Percentiles
Correlation coefficient based on ranking
Non-parametric tests etc.
III. Interval Scale
Example-1: The age of Ram, Shyam, Hari and Krishna are older than Kalpana by 1,2,3, and
4 years. But we cannot claim Shyam is twice old than Ram because real age no one knows in
this case but we know only the interval.
Example-2: Suppose some scores for five students a, b, c, d and e are available.
o a b c d e
o 1 2 3 4 5
Interval from a to c: c – a = 3 – 1 = 2
Interval from c to d: d – c = 4 – 3 = 1
Interval from d to e: e – d = 5 – 4 = 1
Interval from b to d: d – b = 4 – 2 = 2
Here we can say that score difference between students a and c and between b and d
would be equal.
Permissible/Admissible Operations On Interval Scale: Permissible statistics for interval
scales are:
all the operations used in nominal and ordinal scales including the following:
Arithmetic mean
Standard deviation
Range
Product moment correlation
Parametric tests etc.
But some specified statistical calculations such as geometric mean, harmonic mean
and coefficient of variation are not meaningful on interval scale data.
Example: Ratio scale is widely used in physical measure of weight, length, breath, time, are,
velocity, blood pressure, income etc.
It is more used in physical research but very few in social science research. It is
specially used to find the relationship between two or more variables.
[ The weight balance is good example of a ratio scale. It has an absolute zero which
allows us to calculate the ratio of difference between the weights of two individuals.]