3.

Levels of Measurement and Scaling in Social and Business Empirical Research

Measurement = assignment of numbers to objects, phenomena or events

Measurement criteria:
- level of measurement (including magnitude - the property by which an object can be compared to
other objects of the same kind, an ordering or ranking of the class of objects to which it belongs)
- dimensions (units)
- uncertainty

Levels of measurement in social and business research

In social and business research we often attempt to have respondents communicate their feelings,
perceptions, attitudes, opinions, and evaluations in a certain measurable form. Most of the time we
have to measure non-observable things – latent variables. This is why researchers have developed
a range of instruments containing different scales, each with specific measurement properties.
Some scales are limited in their mathematical properties to the extent that they can only establish
an association between variables (nominal ones), while other scales have more extensive
mathematical properties (ordinal) or even hold out the possibility of establishing cause and effect
relationships between variables (interval, ratio). These are the main 4 levels of measurement.

The four properties of the abstract number system that are relevant to scales of measurement are
identity, magnitude, equal interval, and absolute/true zero:
- Identity (classification) means that each number has a particular meaning
- Magnitude (order) means that numbers have an inherent order from smaller to larger
- Distance (equal intervals) means that the differences between numbers (units) anywhere
on the scale are the same
- Origin (absolute/true zero) means that the zero point represents the absence of the
property being measured (e.g., no money, no behavior, none correct).

Nominal measurement
For this first level of measurement, we use numbers to classify or categorize data, but those
numbers don’t have a meaning in themselves. As an example, suppose data is about people
belonging to two different genders, males and females. In this case, the person belonging to the
female gender could be classified as 1, and the person belonging to the male gender could be
classified as 2. This type of assigning classification is nothing but the nominal level of
measurement. This is the roughest measurement scale, which classifies individuals, companies,
products, brands or other entities into categories where no order is implied. If only two categories
exist, scales are dichotomic. When more than 2 categories exist, we speak about a categorical
scale. It is just a system of classification and does not place the analyzed entity along a continuum.
It involves a simple count of the frequency of cases assigned to various categories. In order to
analyze the central tendency of the data we can only use the mode, other allowed statistics being
frequencies and percentages. Measures of central tendency are measures of the location of the
middle or the center of a distribution. The definition of "middle" or "center" is somewhat vague so
that the term "central tendency" can refer to a wide variety of measures. The mean is the most
commonly used measure of central tendency, but for nominal variables you never compute means!
Other measures of central tendency are the mode and the median.

Ordinal measurement
For this second level of measurement we have some ordered relationship or ranking between items
or categories. If for an exam a student scores the maximum grade in the class, he is assigned the
first rank. Then, the person scoring the second highest grade would be assigned the second rank,
and so on. The ordinal level of measurement indicates an approximate ordering of the
measurements, but the difference between any two types (or steps) of ranking is not the same
along the scale (distances between ranks are not equal, are not the same). For the central tendency
we can use the median. Permissible statistics include frequencies, mode, median, percentiles.

Interval measurement
The interval level of measurement not only classifies and orders measurements, but it also
specifies that the distances between each interval on the scale are equivalent along the scale from
low interval to high interval. It means that the difference between ranks or steps is the same. A
popular example for this level of measurement is temperature in centigrade, where, the distance
between 940C and 960C is the same as the distance between 1000C and 1020C. It is only with an
interval scaled data that researchers can justify the use of the arithmetic mean as the measure of
average or central tendency. The interval scale is also named cardinal scale and has equal units of
measurement, thus making possible the interpretation not only of the order of scale scores but also
of the distance between them. However, the scale does not have an absolute zero - the zero point
on an interval scale is arbitrary and is not a true zero. This of course has implications for the type
of data manipulation and analysis we can carry out on data collected in this form. It is possible to
add or subtract a constant to all of the scale values without affecting the form of the scale but one
cannot multiply or divide the values. It can be said that two respondents with scale positions 1 and
2 are as far apart as two respondents with scale positions 4 and 5, but not that a person with score
10 feels twice as strongly as one with score 5. Temperature is interval scaled, being measured
either in Centigrade or Fahrenheit. We cannot speak of 50°F being twice as hot as 25°F since the
corresponding temperatures on the centigrade scale, 10°C and -3.9°C, are not in the ratio 2:1.
Permissible statistics include Median, Mean, Standard Deviation, Skewness and Kurtosis.

Ratio measurement

In this level, the measurements can have a value of absolute zero as well, which makes this type of
measurement the most complex one, unlike previous types of measurement, although the
properties are similar to that of the interval level of measurement. In the ratio level of
measurement, the divisions between the points on the scale have an equivalent distance between
them, and the rankings assigned to the items are according to their size. The highest level of
measurement is a ratio scale. This has the properties of an interval scale together with a fixed
origin or zero point. Examples of variables which are ratio scaled include weights, lengths and
times. Ratio scales permit the researcher to compare both differences in scores and the relative
magnitude of scores. For instance the difference between 5 and 10 minutes is the same as that
between 10 and 15 minutes, and 10 minutes is twice as long as 5 minutes. Permissible statistics
include Mean, Standard Deviation, Skewness, Kurtosis. The only level with all four properties –
identity, magnitude, equal intervals and absolute zero.
 Summary of The Four Levels of Measurement:
Appropriate Descriptive Statistics and Graphs
(From James Neill, 2009)

Level of Properties Examples Descriptive Graphs

Measurement statistics

Nominal / Discrete Dichotomous Frequencies Bar

Categorical Arbitrary  Yes / No Percentage Pie
(no order)  Gender Mode
Types / Categories
 colour
 shape

Ordinal / Rank Ordered categories Ranking of favourites Frequencies Bar

Ranks Academic grades Mode Pie
Median Stem & leaf
Percentiles

Interval Equal distances Discrete Frequencies Bar

between values - Thoughts, (if discrete) (if discrete)
Discrete behaviours, feelings, Mode Pie
(e.g., Likert scale) etc. on a Likert scale (if discrete) (if discrete)
Metric Metric Median Stem & Leaf
(e.g., deg. F) - Deg. C or F Mean Boxplot
Interval scales >5 SD Histogram
can usually be Skewness (if metric)
treated as ratio Kurtosis

Ratio Continuous / Age Mean Histogram

Metric / Weight SD Boxplot
Meaningful 0 VO2 max Skewness Stem&Leaf
allows ratio Deg. Kelvin Kurtosis (may need to
statements round leafs)
(e.g., A is twice as
large as B)
Examples of Measurement scales

The various types of scales used in business research fall into two broad categories: comparative
and non comparative.

In comparative scaling, the respondent is asked to compare one brand or product against another.
Comparative scales are also called ranking scales.

With noncomparative scaling respondents need to evaluate a single product or brand. Their
evaluation is independent of the other product and/or brands which the marketing researcher is
studying. Noncomparative scaling is frequently referred to as monadic scaling and this is the most
widely used type of scale in commercial marketing research studies. Non comparative scales are
also called rating scales.
Types of ranking scales: paired-comparison scales (ordinal), forced ranking scale (ordinal),
comparative scale (ordinal)

Types of rating scales: semantic, likert, other types

Semantic scales: This type of scale makes extensive use of words rather than numbers.
Respondents describe their feelings about the products or brands on scales with semantic labels.
When bipolar adjectives are used at the end points of the scales, these are termed semantic
differential scales. The semantic scale and the semantic differential scale are illustrated in figure 1.

Figure 1. Semantic and semantic differential scales

Likert scales: A Likert scale is what is termed a summated instrument scale. This means that the
items making up a Likert scale are summed to produce a total score. In fact, a Likert scale is a
composite of itemised scales. Typically, each scale item will have 5 categories, with scale values
ranging from -2 to +2 with 0 as neutral response. This explanation may be clearer from the
example in figure 2. Likert scales are treated as yielding Interval data by the majority of business
researchers.

Figure 2. The Likert scale

Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly

Agree Disagree
If the price of raw materials fell firms would 1 2 3 4 5
reduce the price of their food products.
Without government regulation the firms 1 2 3 4 5
would exploit the consumer.
Most food companies are so concerned about 1 2 3 4 5
making profits they do not care about quality.
The food industry spends a great deal of 1 2 3 4 5
money making sure that its manufacturing is
hygienic.
Food companies should charge the same price 1 2 3 4 5
for their products throughout the country

Other scales (see Blumberg, Chapter 13): numerical scale (ordinal or interval), multiple rating list
scale (interval), fixed sum scale (ratio), graphic rating scale (interval or ratio), Stapel scale (ordinal
or interval)

Scale construction – 5 basic approaches:

- arbitrary (custom designed) – no evidence of reliability and validity
- consensus (experts or judges)
- item analysis (test on sample of participants)
- cumulative (scales chosen for their conformity to a ranking of items with ascending and
descending discriminating power
- factoring (inter-correlations of items from other studies) – factor analysis, cluster analysis

Errors to avoid with rating scales:

- leniency (easy versus hard raters)
- central tendency
- halo effect