PSYC104 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Ordinal Data, Level Of Measurement, The Strongest
17 May 2018
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PSYC104 Research Design
Chapter 5 [Quantitative Descriptive Research]
5.2.1 Chapter Outline
- Variables
- Types of Research Observation
- Methods of Data Collection
- Analysing Data
5.3 Variables
- Operationalising:
- Constructs:
- Variables come from the process of operationalising a phenomenon
- The phenomena that we study are broken down into a set of constructs that represent the
key elements of each phenomenon
- Variables define the attributes of each construct we study and state how each will be
measured
- The variables define the aspects of the construct that we are interested in studying, and
state how each of those aspects will be measured
5.3.1 Levels of Measurement
5.3.2 Categorical Variables
- Categorical variables typically represent distinct categories or groups of individuals, which
are distinguished by a specific characteristic
- Can be simple two categories (like sex) or more complex variables (like income)
- Two types of categorical variables
o Nominal
o Ordinal
5.3.3 Nominal Level
- The nominal level is the most basic type of variable and simply names categories
- There is no numeric or ordered relationship between the categories or values
- E.g. colours
5.3.4 Ordinal Level
- Ordinal level variables also involve naming categories, although these variables have an
ordered relationship that needs to be preserved: an ordered relative difference between
different values
- This means that a category of an ordinal variable can be ranked higher or lower than
another, but this does not necessarily give us a numeric difference between each category,
just an order
- E.g. income level – low, medium, high
- E.g. letter grades – A, B, C, D, F
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Document Summary
Variables come from the process of operationalising a phenomenon. The phenomena that we study are broken down into a set of constructs that represent the key elements of each phenomenon. Variables define the attributes of each construct we study and state how each will be measured. The variables define the aspects of the construct that we are interested in studying, and state how each of those aspects will be measured. Categorical variables typically represent distinct categories or groups of individuals, which are distinguished by a specific characteristic. Can be simple two categories (like sex) or more complex variables (like income) Two types of categorical variables: nominal, ordinal. The nominal level is the most basic type of variable and simply names categories. There is no numeric or ordered relationship between the categories or values. Ordinal level variables also involve naming categories, although these variables have an ordered relationship that needs to be preserved: an ordered relative difference between different values.
