Levels of Measurement

By
ILIKA GUHA MAJUMDAR
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology,
School of Social Sciences
and Humanities
Measurement

• What is Measurement?
• What can be measured?
• What is a variable?
• What is the purpose of measurement?
What is the need for quantification in
psychology?
Properties of Measurement
• Numbers are assigned according to some rules.
Rules are the procedures to transform qualities
of attributes to numbers.

• Measurement is always concerned with certain

features of an object rather than object itself.

• Numerals are used to represent quantities of the

attribute (quantification). Quantification indicates
how much or to what extent that particular
attribute is present in a particular object.
Levels of Measurement (Stevens,
1951)

• Nominal
• Ordinal
• Interval
• Ratio
What Is Level of Measurement?
The relationship of the values that are
assigned to the attributes for a variable
What Is Level of Measurement?
The relationship of the values that are
assigned to the attributes for a variable

Relationship
What Is Level of Measurement?
The relationship of the values that are
assigned to the attributes for a variable

Values 1 2 3

Relationship
What Is Level of Measurement?
The relationship of the values that are
assigned to the attributes for a variable

Attributes Cricket Football Hockey

Values 1 2 3

Relationship
What Is Level of Measurement?
The relationship of the values that are
assigned to the attributes for a variable

Variable Sports

Attributes Cricket Football Hockey

Values 1 2 3

Relationship
Why Is Level of Measurement
Important?

• Helps you decide what statistical

analysis is appropriate on the values
that were assigned
• Helps you decide how to interpret the
data from that variable
Nominal Measurement

• The values “name” the attribute

uniquely.
Nominal Measurement

• The values “name” the attribute

uniquely.
• The name does not imply any
ordering of the cases.
Nominal Measurement

• The values “name” the attribute

uniquely.
• The value does not imply any
ordering of the cases, for example,
jersey numbers in football.
Nominal Measurement

• The values “name” the attribute

uniquely.
• The value does not imply any
ordering of the cases, for example,
jersey numbers in football.
• Even though player 32 has higher
number than player 19, you can’t say
from the data that he’s greater than or
more than the other.
Nominal Measurement

Two types of nominal scales:

1.Nominal Renaming- Aadhar no.
2.Nominal Categorical- gender; clinical
groups; rural-urban
Nominal Measurement

• Statistics that can be applied:

1.Counting
2.Frequency
3.%
4.Proportion
5.Mode
Nominal Measurement

• Limitation:
Too elementary and simple
Ordinal Measurement

When attributes can be rank-ordered…

Ordinal Measurement

When attributes can be rank-ordered…

• Distances between attributes do not
have any meaning.
Ordinal Measurement

When attributes can be rank-ordered…

• Distances between attributes do not
have any meaning.
• Property of magnitude
Ordinal Measurement

When attributes can be rank-ordered…

• Distances between attributes do not
have any meaning,
• Property of magnitude
• for example, code Educational
Achievement as 0=10th pass; 1=12th
pass.; 2=graduate; 3=post-graduate;
4=doctoral; 5=post doctoral
Ordinal Measurement

• for example, code Educational

Achievement as 0=10th pass; 1=12th
pass.; 2=graduate; 3=post-graduate;
4=doctoral; 5=post doctoral

Is the distance from 0 to 1 the same as

3 to 4?
• Relationship of greater than lesser
than exists
Ordinal Measurement
• for example, code Educational
Achievement as 0=10th pass; 1=12th
pass.; 2=graduate; 3=post-graduate;
4=doctoral; 5=post doctoral

• Relationship of greater than lesser

than exists
• All members of a category are
equivalent to each other
Ordinal Measurement
• Statistics that can be applied:
1.Median
2.Percentile
3.Rank correlation
4.All statistics that are permissible for
nominal level.
Ordinal Measurement
Limitations
1.Not absolute quantities
2.Do not convey distance between
between the ranks
Interval Measurement

When distance between attributes has

meaning… numerically equal distances on
the scale indicate equal distances in the
properties of the objects being measured

Equal interval measurement

Interval Measurement

For example, temperature (in Fahrenheit) --

distance from 30-40 is same as distance
from 70-80
Interval Measurement

For example, temperature (in Fahrenheit) --

distance from 30-40 is same as distance
from 70-80

•Note that ratios don’t make any sense - 80

degrees is not twice as hot as 40 degrees
(although the attribute values are).
Interval Measurement

For example, temperature (in Fahrenheit) --

distance from 30-40 is same as distance
from 70-80
•Note that ratios don’t make any sense - 80
degrees is not twice as hot as 40 degrees
(although the attribute values are).
•Arbitrary zero point
Interval Measurement

• Statistics that can be applied:

1.Mean
2.Standard deviation
3.Pearson r
4.t-test
5.F-test
Interval Measurement

• Limitations:
1.Arbitrary zero point- 0 on this scale does
not convey real absence of the property
being measured
Ratio Measurement

• Has an absolute zero that is meaningful

Ratio Measurement

• Has an absolute zero that is meaningful

• Can construct a meaningful ratio (fraction)
Ratio Measurement

• Has an absolute zero that is meaningful

• Can construct a meaningful ratio (fraction),
for example, number of clients in past six
months
Ratio Measurement

• Has an absolute zero that is meaningful

• Can construct a meaningful ratio (fraction),
for example, number of clients in past six
months; length of cloth
• It is meaningful to say that ...we had twice
as many clients in this period as we did in
the previous six months.
Ratio Measurement

• Has an absolute zero that is meaningful

• Can construct a meaningful ratio (fraction),
for example, number of clients in past six
months; length of cloth
• It is meaningful to say that “...we had twice
as many clients in this period as we did in
the previous six months.
• Common in physical sciences- weight,
length, height, loudness etc.
Ratio Measurement

• Statistics that can be applied:

1.All statistical operations including
coefficient of variation (ratio of SD to
mean)
The Hierarchy of Levels

Nominal
The Hierarchy of Levels

Nominal Attributes are only named; weakest

The Hierarchy of Levels

Ordinal

Nominal Attributes are only named; weakest

The Hierarchy of Levels

Ordinal Attributes can be ordered

Nominal Attributes are only named; weakest

The Hierarchy of Levels

Interval
Ordinal Attributes can be ordered

Nominal Attributes are only named; weakest

The Hierarchy of Levels

Interval Distance is meaningful

Ordinal Attributes can be ordered

Nominal Attributes are only named; weakest

The Hierarchy of Levels

Ratio
Interval Distance is meaningful

Ordinal Attributes can be ordered

Nominal Attributes are only named; weakest

The Hierarchy of Levels

Ratio Absolute zero

Interval Distance is meaningful

Ordinal Attributes can be ordered

Nominal Attributes are only named; weakest

Basic Properties

EQUAL ABSOLUTE
TYPE OF SCALE MAGNITUDE
INTERVAL ZERO

Nominal X X X

√
Ordinal X X

√ √
Interval X

√ √ √
Ratio

46
Questions

1. The teacher of a class of third graders

records the eye color of each student.
2. The teacher of a class of third graders
records the letter grade for mathematics
for each student.
3.  A film critic lists the top 50 greatest
movies of all time.
4. A university complies SAT scores of
students.
Central Tendency

• Central tendency is an average or a typical

value of the items in the series and its
function is to summarize the series in
terms of this average value (Tate. 1955)
• It determines a single value that accurately
describes the centre of the distribution and
represents the entire distribution of scores

48
Central Tendency

• The goal of central tendency is to identify

the single value that is the best
representative for the entire set of data.
• By identifying the "average score," central
tendency allows researchers to summarize
or condense a large set of data into a
single value

49
Central Tendency (cont.)

• It is as a descriptive statistic because it allows

researchers to describe or present a set of data
in a very simplified, concise form.

• In addition, it is possible to compare two (or

more) sets of data by simply comparing the
average score (central tendency) for one set
versus the average score for another set.

50
The Mean, the Median, the Mode
• It is essential that central tendency be
determined by an objective and well‑defined
procedure so that others will understand exactly
how the "average" value was obtained and can
duplicate the process.

52
The Mean, the Median, the Mode
• Representative of the characteristics of the
whole group
• Help in comparing two or more groups

• Mean- simplest and most useful; mathematical

average of the data

53
The Mean, the Median, the Mode
• Median- if the data is arranged in ascending or
descending order, this measure or value will be the
central item in the series. It is the point on the
scale below which half (or 50%) of the scores lie.
Divides the data into two equal parts.

• Mode- size of the variable (or score) that occurs

most frequently. Corresponds to the maximum
frequency. Repeated maximum number of times.

• Median and mode are positional averages.

54
Questions

• What would you use if you were to find out

the average achievement of a group?
• What would you use to find out the most
popular show on Netflix?
• What would you use to determine the mid-
point of the scores in group in an entrance
examination?
Grouped vs Ungrouped Data

Ungrouped data - has not been summarized in

any way; also called raw data
Example of Ungrouped Data
Age of managers in an organization
42 30 53 50 52 30 55 49 61 74 26 58 40 40 28
36 30 33 31 37 32 37 30 32 23 32 58 43 30 29
34 50 47 31 35 26 64 46 40 43 57 30 49 40 25
50 52 32 60 54
Grouped vs Ungrouped Data

Grouped data- has been organized into groups

(frequency distribution)
Grouped vs Ungrouped Data
How do we change ungrouped data to
grouped data?
• Step 1- Find the range (highest
score/value- lowest score/ value)

• Example- 10, 15, 20, 25, 30

• Range= 30-10= 20
How do we change ungrouped data to
grouped data?
• Step 2- determining the class interval (i) or
grouping interval i.e. how many classes or
groups will the data be divided into and
what will be the size of each class.
• i= Range
No. of classes desired
• Decide the class interval (i) and then no. of
classes is decided accordingly. Usually
2,3,5,10 units are used
How do we change ungrouped data to
grouped data?
Tate (1955)

No. of items or scores less than 50  no. of

classes less than 10
No. of items or scores 50-100  no. of
classes 10-15
More than 100 scores  15 or more classes
How do we change ungrouped data to
grouped data?
How do we change ungrouped data to
grouped data?
How do we change ungrouped data to
grouped data?