MEASUREMENT SCALES IN RESEARCH

Scaling is critical in research because it relates to the types of statistics you can use to
analyze your data. When an incorrect scale is used in measurement the work is rejected to
the extent of that anomaly.

Stevens (1946, 1951) proposed that measurements can be classified into four different
types of scales. These are shown in the table below as: nominal, ordinal, interval, and
ratio.

Admissible Scale Mathematical

Scale Type Permissible Statistics
Transformation structure
nominal (also standard set
One to One
denoted as mode, Chi-square structure
(equality (=))
categorical) (unordered)
Monotonic
ordinal median, percentile increasing totally ordered set
(order (<))
mean, standard deviation,
Positive linear
interval correlation, regression, analysis affine line
(affine)
of variance
All statistics permitted for
interval scales plus the
Positive similarities
ratio following: geometric mean, field
(multiplication)
harmonic mean, coefficient of
variation, logarithms

NOMINAL SCALE:

A nominal scale is the placing of data into categories, without any order or structure. In
research activities a YES/NO scale is nominal. It has no order and there is no distance
between YES and NO.

The statistics which can be used with nominal scales are in the non-parametric group.
The most likely ones would be:

1. Mode
2. Cross tabulation - with chi-square

There are also highly sophisticated modeling techniques available for nominal data.

EXAMPLE OF NOMINAL SCALE:

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From Monday to Friday for a park a number of gents and ladies arrived, which is defined
in the below table. Using this nominal data find how many gents who arrived park from
Monday to Thursday.
Day Gents Ladies
Monday 12 6
Tuesday 9 14
Wednesday 13 13
Thursday 5 8
Friday 7 7
Solution:
By the nominal scale number of gents who arrived to park from Monday to Thursday is
12+9+13+5=39. Therefore, from Monday to Thursday there are 39 gents arrived to that
park.

ORDINAL SCALIE

The simplest ordinal scale is a ranking. When a market researcher asks you to rank 5
types of beer from most flavorful to least flavorful, he/she is asking you to create an
ordinal scale of preference. There is no objective distance between any two points on
your subjective scale. For you the top beer may be far superior to the second preferred
beer but, to another respondent with the same top and second beer, the distance may be
subjectively small. An ordinal scale only lets you interpret gross order and not the
relative positional distances.

Ordinal data would use non-parametric statistics. These would include:

1. Median and mode

2. Rank order correlation
3. Non-parametric analysis of variance

Modeling techniques can also be used with ordinal data.

EXAMPLE:

Judge's score Score minus 8 Tripled score Cubed score

x x-8 3x x3
Alice's cooking ability 10 2 30 1000
Bob's cooking ability 9 1 27 729
Claire's cooking ability 8.5 0.5 25.5 614.125
Dana's cooking ability 8 0 24 512

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Edgar's cooking ability 5 -3 15 125

Since x-8, 3x, and x3 are all monotonically increasing functions, replacing the ordinal
judge's score by any of these alternate scores does not affect the relative ranking of the
five people's cooking abilities. Each column of numbers is an equally legitimate ordinal
scale for describing their abilities. However, the numerical (additive) difference between
the various ordinal scores has no particular meaning.

INTERVAL SCALE:

Interval scale is the standard survey rating scale. When you are asked to rate your
satisfaction with a piece of software on a 7 point scale, from Dissatisfied to Satisfied, you
are using an interval scale.

It is an interval scale because it is assumed to have equidistant points between each of the
scale elements. This means that we can interpret differences in the distance along the
scale. We contrast this to an ordinal scale where we can only talk about differences in
order, not differences in the degree of order.

Interval scales are also scales which are defined by metrics such as logarithms. In these
cases, the distances are note equal but they are strictly definable based on the metric used.

Interval scale data would use parametric statistical techniques such as:

1. Mean and standard deviation

2. Correlation – r
3. Regression
4. Analysis of variance
5. Factor analysis

Plus a whole range of advanced multivariate and modelling techniques

An example of interval scale is the Likert scale. The format of a typical five-level Likert
item is:

1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Neither agree nor disagree
4. Agree
5. Strongly agree

Other format include: very effective, effective, somewhat effective, not effective, not
very effective.

RATIO SCALE:

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A ratio scale is the top level of measurement and is not often available in social research.

The factor which clearly defines a ratio scale is that it has a true zero point.

The simplest example of a ratio scale is the measurement of length (disregarding any
philosophical points about defining how we can identify zero length).

The best way to contrast interval and ratio scales is to look at temperature. The
Centigrade scale has a zero point but it is an arbitrary one. The Farenheit scale has its
equivalent point at -32o. (Physicists would probably argue that Absolute Zero is the zero
point for temperature but this is a theoretical concept.) So, even though temperture looks
as if it would be a ratio scale it is an interval scale. Currently, we cannot talk about no
temperature - and this would be needed if it were a ration scale.

SUMMARY ON SCALES OF MEASUREMENT

Data comes in various sizes and shapes and it is important to know about these so that the
proper analysis can be used on the data. There are usually 4 scales of measurement that
must be considered:

1. Nominal Data
o classification data, e.g. m/f
o no ordering, e.g. it makes no sense to state that M > F
o arbitrary labels, e.g., m/f, 0/1, etc
2. Ordinal Data
o ordered but differences between values are not important
o e.g., political parties on left to right spectrum given labels 0, 1, 2
o e.g., Likert scales, rank on a scale of 1..5 your degree of satisfaction
o e.g., restaurant ratings
3. Interval Data
o ordered, constant scale, but no natural zero
o differences make sense, but ratios do not (e.g., 30°-20°=20°-10°, but
20°/10° is not twice as hot!
o e.g., temperature (C,F), dates
4. Ratio Data
o ordered, constant scale, natural zero
o e.g., height, weight, age, length