It is extremely important for a researcher to clearly define the variables in a

Question

It is extremely important for a researcher to clearly define the variables in a study because this helps to determine the type of analysis that can be performed on the data. For example, if a researcher wanted to describe people based on Social Security number, what level of measurement would the variable "Social Security number" be? Now suppose the researcher felt that certain people with a greater birth weight received higher numbers.

Does the level of measurement of the variable change? If so, how?

What is the level of measurement of the variable

Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, or Ratio?

Explanation / Answer

Ans:

Level of measurement for Social security numbers is Nominal.

But when social security number is given accirding to birth weight,it becomes ordered data,so level of measurement will be Ordinal.

Nominal: Categorical data and numbers that are simply used as identifiers or names represent a nominal scale of measurement. Numbers on the back of a baseball jersey and your social security number are examples of nominal data. If I conduct a study and I'm including gender as a variable, I may code Female as 1 and Male as 2 or visa versa when I enter my data into the computer. Thus, I am using the numbers 1 and 2 to represent categories of data.

Ordinal: An ordinal scale of measurement represents an ordered series of relationships or rank order. Individuals competing in a contest may be fortunate to achieve first, second, or third place. first, second, and third place represent ordinal data.

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