Sept 27, 2018 Soci 217 Levels of Measurements 4 different types of variables: NOIR Nominal: - Least sophisticated, gets more sophisticated as we go down - Non numerical - Qualitative - Ex: race- Chinese, Indian, black, etc. cannot rank one and say one is superior to another - Cannot be ranked - Mutually exclusive Ordinal: - All the features of nominal variables EXCEPT - They can be numerical or non-numerical, qualitative or quantitative - They CAN be ranked, ex: income- low income, middle, high, we can rank one as more than the other - WHAT SEPERATES ORDINAL AND NOMINAL: The distances between the categories are not fixed - Ex: Income- 0-10,000 and 10,001-15,000 and 15,000-49,999 (not over-lap, they are all exclusive) *distances are not fixed (the same) Interval: - Are continuous, the categories run into each other - 1,2,3,4,5,6 ... etc., continuous, keeps going - Distances are fixed - Interval variables are continuous, ordinal variables are not, - Ordinal variables do not have fixed distances, interval variables have fixed distances - Ratio and interval variables are always the same except ONE THING: with interval variables, the zero is not a true zero- with an interval variable, it does not mean the absence of what you're looking for, with ratio- a zero means that it is totally absent - Ex: IQ- score 0 on IQ test does not mean you lack all intelligence - Ex: temperature, 0 degrees does not mean that there is no heat at all, that is not a true zero. However with ratio, the zero is a true zero - Ex: how much money do you have? Zero dollars, that means a total absence of money - Can be ranked Ratio: Most sophisticated way to measure a concept - Also continuous - Asked to construct an internal or ratio variable, attributes must be continuous - Distances are fixed all features of interval variable except zero means something. This means we can say "this" is 10x more than "that"
- Ex: temperature- Saks is 15 degrees, Van is 30 degrees, cannot say Van is twice as hot because those values are not true. Ca only say van is 15 degrees hotter. However with ratio- we can. I have 1 TV, you have 2 TVs, I have twice as many as you Q: What is the level of measurement of .. astrological signs? A: Nominal Q: What is the level of measurement of Income with categories 0-20k, 20k-50k, 60k to 100k A: This is not a variable because it is not exhaustive. What if you make more than 100? Not mutually exclusive because 30k is repeated. - All variables are mutually exclusive - Attributes cannot overlap, is you can choose two, it is not a variable - Variables must be exhausted - * MIDTERM* construct variables, demonstrate - Mutually exclusive and jointly exhausted Indexes and Scales - End result of indexes and scales is an ordinal variable - Scale: when we want to come up with logical, empirical structure.