TYPES OF MEASUREMENT SCALE (NOIR)

1. Nominal Level of Measurement (Name)

 A qualitative variable that characterizes (or describes, or names) an element of a
population.
 Arithmetic operations not meaningful for data
 Ordering of the names, numerically meaningless
 Naming
 EXAMPLES:
o Political party: Democratic, republican, independent
o Religion: Roman Catholic, Islam
o Marital Status: Single, married, divorced, widowed, separated
o Hair Colors: Brown, Black, Blonde
o Hometown
2. Ordinal Level of Measurement (Order)
 Classifies data into categories that can be ranked
 Numerical differences in ranks do not have meaning
 Ordering of data clearly makes sense
 Ordering + Naming
 EXAMPLES:
o Speakers might be ranked as superior, average, poor
o Letter grades: A, B, C, D, F
o Level of satisfaction: Very satisfied, Satisfied, Somewhat satisfied
3. Interval Level of Measurement
 Ranks data, meaningful differences between units of measure do exist (i.e., one
data value is 5 more than or 10 less than another value)
 There is no meaningful zero (i.e., no true zero)
 Meaningful differences + Ordering + Naming
 EXAMPLES:
o Temperature (O°F does not mean no heat at all)
o 72°F and 73°F: there is a meaningful difference of 1°F
o IQ: 109 and 110 there is a meaningful difference of 1 point
 IQ Tests do not measure people who have no intelligence
4. Ratio Level of Measurement
 Possesses all the characteristics of interval measurement
 There exists a true zero
 Both differences between data values and ratios of data values are meaningful
 It makes sense to say that one data value is twice as large as another.
 True Zero + Meaningful differences + Ordering + Naming
  EXAMPLES:
o If one person can lift 200 pounds and another can lift 100 pounds, the ratio
between them is 2 to 1
o The first person can lift twice as much as the second person
EXAMPLES OF MEASUREMENT SCALES
Nominal-Level data Ordinal-Level Data Interval-Level Data Ratio-Level Data
ZIP Code: 1101, 1102 Grades: 1.00, 1.75 Scholastic Aptitude Height
Judging: First Place,
Gender: Male, Female Test (SAT) Score Weight
Second Place. etc
Eye Color: Blue, Rating Scale: Poor. Intelligence Quotient
Area
Brown Good, Excellent (IQ)
Political Affiliation:
Independent, Temperature Time
Democratic
Religious Affiliation:
Salary
Catholic, INC
Age
Nationality: Filipino,
American Number of phone
calls received

EXERCISES
1. What level of measurement would be used to measure each variable?
a) The ages of authors who wrote the hardback versions of the top fiction books sold
during a specific week.
 RATIO
b) The colors of baseball hats sold in a sore for a specific year.
 NOMINAL
c) The highest temperature (°F) for each day of a specific month.
 INTERVAL
d) The ratings of bands that played in the homecoming parade at a college.
 ORDINAL
2. The following describe different data associated with a person. For each data entry,
indicate the corresponding level of measurement
a) The person’s name is Pedro
 Nominal Level
b) The person is 60 years old.
  Ratio Level. Notice that age has a meaningful zero. It makes sense to give
ratios. For example, Pedro is twice as old as someone who is 30 years old.
c) The years in which the person was elected to the Senate are 2000, 2008, 2016
 Interval Level. Dates can be ordered, and the difference between dates has
meaning. For instance 2008 is 8 years later than 2000. However, ratios do
not make sense. The year 2000 is not twice as large as the year 1000. In
addition, the year 0 does not mean “no time.”
d) The person’s taxable income last year was Php500,000.00
 Ratio Level. It makes sense to say that the person’s income is 10 times that
of someone earning Php50,000.
e) The person’s marital status is “Married”
 Nominal Level
f) A leading newspaper claims that the person is ranked sixth for his voting record on
bills regarding public education.
 Ordinal Level. Ranks can be ordered, but differences between ranks may
vary meaning.
3. FATAL TRANSPORTATION INJURIES
a) Read the following information about the number of fatal accidents for the
transportation industry for a specific year, and answer each question.
Industry Number of Fatalities
Highway Accidents 968
Railway Accidents 44
Water vehicle Accidents 52
Aircraft Accidents 151
a) Name the variables under study.
 Transportation Industry and no. of fatalities/fatal accidents
b) Categorize each variable as quantitative or qualitative.
 Transportation Industry = Qualitative Variable
 No. of fatalities = Quantitative Variable
c) Categorize each variable as discrete or discontinuous.
 No. of fatalities = Discrete
d) Identify the level of measurement for each variable.
 Type Industry = Nominal
 No. of fatalities = Ratio
e) The railroad had the fewest fatalities for the specific year. Does this mean railroads
have fewer accidents than the other industries?
 Even though the number of fatalities for the railroad industry is lowest, you
should consider the fact that fewer people use the railroads to travel than the
other industries.
f) What factors other than safety influence a person’s choice of transportation?
  A person’s transportation choice might also be affected by convenience,
cost, service, availability, etc
g) From the information given, comment on the relationship between the variables.
 Answers will vary. The railroad industry had the fewest fatalities followed
by water vehicle accidents while the aircraft accidents were about three
times as many as the water vehicle accidents. Of course, the most fatalities
occurred in highway accidents.
4. A study conducted at the Rizal Technological University revealed that the students who
attended class 95 to 100% of the time usually received a grade of 1.00 or 1.25 in the
class. Students who attended class 80 to 90% of the time received a grade of 1.75 or 2.00
in the class. Students who attended class less than 80% of the time usually received a
grade of 2.75 or 3.00 or eventually withdrawn from the class. Based on this information,
attendance and grades are related. The more you attend class, the more likely it is you
will receive a higher grade. If you improve your attendance, your grades will probably
improve. Many factors affect your grade in a course. One factor that you have
considerable control over is attendance. You can increase your opportunities for learning
by attending class more often.
a) What are the variables under study?
 Variables: grades and Attendance
b) What are the data in the study?
 Data: Specific grades and Attendance numbers
c) Are descriptive, inferential or both types of statistics used?
 These are descriptive statistics; however, if an inference was made to all
students, then that would be inferential statistics
d) What is the population under study?
 Population under study: All students at RTU
e) Was a sample collected? If so, from where?
 While not specified, we probably have data from a sample of RTU students.
f) From the information given, comment on the relationship between the variables.
 Based on the data, it appears that, in general, the better your attendance, the
higher your grade.
BASIC METHODS OF COLLECTING DATA/GENERAL TYPES OF STATISTICAL
STUDIES
1. Retrospective Study
 Uses historical data, data taken over a specific period of time
 Uses historical data
 Would use either all or a sample of the historical process data archived over
some period of time
 May involve a significant amount of data, but those data may contain
relatively little useful information about the problem.
  Furthermore, some of the relevant data may be missing, there may be
transcription or recording errors resulting in Outliers
 (Or unusual values), or data on other important factors may not have
been collected and archived.
2. Observational Study
 Data, presently collected, by a passive observer.
 Because these studies are usually conducted for a relatively short time of period,
sometimes variables that are not routinely measured can be included
3. Designed Experiment
 Data collected in response to process input changes
 Random Experiment
 An experiment that can result in different outcomes, even though it is
repeated in the same manner every time
SAMPLING (DATA COLLECTION)
 Data collection is the process of gathering and measuring information on variables of
interest, in an established systematic fashion that enables one to answer stated research
questions, test hypotheses, and evaluate outcomes.
 Data collection is one of the most important stages in conducting a research.
SAMPLING METHODS
1. Sampling Method
 The process of selecting items or events that will become the sample
2. Biased Sampling Method
 A sampling method that produces data that systematically differ from the sampled
population. Repeated sampling will not correct the bias.
3. Unbiased Sampling Method
 A sampling method that is not biased and produces data that are representative of
the sampled population.