COMM 400 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Level Of Measurement

• School: George Mason University
• Department: Communication
• Course: COMM 400
• Professor: Botan

Document Summary

Dv- depend on changes in the iv. Iv- changes on its own, outside of the study. Sometimes researchers suspect a causal relationship between variables (i. e. , changes in the iv cause observed changes in the dv). Researchers sometimes study iv"s that are not about messages, but are thought to influence people"s communication behavior (e. g. , the attractiveness of people"s appearance may influence how others talk to them). Nominal variables (also called categorical, classificatory or discrete variables), by contrast can be differentiated only on the basis of type (nominal means in name only ) Variables such as gender, race, and political affiliation are nominal. Lose the ability to distinguish between them (ex. Grouping all colors of white together when talking about car colors) A nominal variable that can be divided into two categories such as gender is called a dichotomous or binomial variable. A nominal variable that can be divided into more than two categories is a polytomous variable (e. g. , ethnicity, license plates).