Properties of Measurement Scales

Each scale of measurement satisfies one or more of the following properties of measurement. Identity. Each value on the measurement scale has a unique meaning. Magnitude. Values on the measurement scale have an ordered relationship to one another. That is, some values are larger and some are smaller. Equal intervals. Scale units along the scale are equal to one another. This means, for example, that the difference between 1 and 2 would be equal to the difference between 19 and 20. Absolute zero. The scale has a true zero point, below which no values exist.

Nominal Scale: Nominal scales-name (example: gender, race, etc) where the subject falls
into a category, but one category is not considered to be higher or lower than another

Ordinal Scale: Ordinal-an example is a likert scale (ie: rate how happy you are on a scale
of 1 to 5). Someone who rates a 5 would be considered to be happier than someone who rates a 1, but as a researcher you couldn't say that they are 5 times happier than the 1.

Interval Scale : Examples of interval data:

-Temperature (Degrees F) -Dates -Dollars -Years -Most personality measures. -WAIS intelligence score. -Sea Level Example: A student who scores 90% is probably a better student than someone who scores 70%. The difference between the two scores is 20%. In an interval scale, the data can be ranked and for which the difference between the two values can be calculated and interpreted.

Ratio Scale : In map scales, you sometimes notice ratio scales of 1:100 (which is one example).
In conversion scales, like 1 feet equivalent to 12 inches, you express this as 1:12 (which is another example) In percentage scales, like the Earth's are is composed of approximately 70% water and 30% land, you express the ratio scale of water and land as 70:30, or just 7:3, which is similar.