POLI 311 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Nominal Level, Content Analysis, Frequency Analysis
2 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
It"s the process of assigning numerals to observaions according to rules. Numerals we assign are referred to as the values of the variable. We say numeral not number because it doesn"t have quanitaive meaning, they"re symbols. This allows us to also measure qualitaive data. Need to lay out a set of rules explicitly of how you will measure something. Rules determine level of measurement we can achieve. Level of measurement depends on the nature of the property being measured and the choice of data collecion procedures. Should always try to achieve highest level of measurement possible because it will give us the most data. Levels of measurement: nominal level: lowest level of measurement, gives litle data. Involves classifying a variable into at least 2 categories and then soring our observaions into appropriate categories. Numerals simply serve to label data with no quanitaive meaning numerals are interchangeable.
