Lesson 4: Levels of Measurement

TIME FRAME:1 hour session

OVERVIEW OF LESSON
In this lesson we discuss the different levels of measurement as we continue to explore data.
Knowing such will enable us to plan the data collection process we need to employ in order to
gather the appropriate data for analysis.

LEARNING OUTCOME(S): At the end of the lesson, the learner is able to identify and
differentiate the different levels of measurement and methods of data collection

LESSON OUTLINE:
1. Motivational Activity
2. Levels of Measurement
3. Data Collection Methods

DEVELOPMENT OF THE LESSON

A. Motivational Activity

Do you believe the following statement?

“Students who eat a healthy breakfast will do best on a quiz, students who eat an unhealthy
breakfast will get an average performance, and students who do not eat anything for breakfast
will do the worst on a quiz”

How could you defend your answer? Apply a statistical process to investigate on the validity of
this statement. Steps in the process to undertake like the following:

1. Plan or design the collection of data to verify the validity of the statement in a way that
maximizes information content and minimizes bias;
2. Collect the data as required in the plan;
3. Verify the quality of the data after it was collected;
4. Summarize the information extracted from the data; and
5. Examine the summary statistics so that insight and meaningful information can be produced
to support your decision whether to believe or not the given statement.
Let us discuss in detail the first step. In planning or designing the data collection activity, we
could consider the set of all the students in the class as our universe. Then let us identify the
variables we need to observe or measure to verify the validity of the statement. You may ask the
students to participate in the discussion by asking them to identify a question to get the needed
data. The following are some possible suggested queries:

1. Do you usually have a breakfast before going to school?

(Note: This is answerable by Yes or No)
2. What do you usually have for breakfast?
(Note: Possible responses for this question are rice, bread, banana, oatmeal, cereal, etc)
The responses in Questions Numbers 1 and 2 could lead us to identify whether a student in the
class had a healthy breakfast, an unhealthy breakfast or no breakfast at all.
Furthermore, there is a need to determine the performance of the student in a quiz on that day.
The score in the quiz could be used to identify the student’s performance as best, average or
worst. (or excellent, very good, average, poor, very poor)
As we describe the data collection process to verify the validity of the statement, there is also a
need to include the levels of measurement for the variables of interest.

B. Main Lesson:

1. Levels of Measurement

There are four levels of measurement of variables: nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio. These are
hierarchical in nature and are described as follows:

Nominal level of measurement arises when we have variables that are categorical and
nonnumeric or where the numbers have no sense of ordering. As an example, consider the
numbers on the uniforms of basketball players. Is the player wearing a number 7 a worse player
than the player wearing number 10? Maybe, or maybe not, but the number on the uniform does
not have anything to do with their performance. The numbers on the uniform merely help
identify the basketball player. Other examples of the variables measured at the nominal level
include sex, marital status, religious affiliation. For the study on the validity of the statement
regarding effect of breakfast on school performance, students who responded Yes to Question
Number 1 can be coded 1 while those who responded No, code 0 can be assigned. The numbers
used are simply for numerical codes, and cannot be used for ordering and any mathematical
computation.

Ordinal level also deals with categorical variables like the nominal level, but in this level
ordering is important, that is the values of the variable could be ranked. For the study on the
validity of the statement regarding effect of breakfast on school performance, students who had
healthy breakfast can be coded 1, those who had unhealthy breakfast as 2 while those who had
no breakfast at all as 3. Using the codes the responses could be ranked. Thus, the students who
had a healthy breakfast are ranked first while those who had no breakfast at all are ranked last in
terms of having a healthy breakfast. The numerical codes here have a meaningful sense of
ordering, unlike basketball player uniforms, the numerical codes suggest that one student is
having a healthier breakfast than another student. Other examples of the ordinal scale include
socio economic status (A to E, where A is wealthy, E is poor), difficulty of questions in an exam
(easy, medium difficult), rank in a contest (first place, second place, etc.), and perceptions in
Likert scales.

Note : Let us also emphasize that while there is a sense or ordering, there is no zero point in an
ordinal scale. In addition, there is no way to find out how much “distance” there is between one
category and another. In a scale from 1 to 10, the difference between 7 and 8 may not be the
same difference between 1 and 2.

Interval level tells us that one unit differs by a certain amount of degree from another unit.
Knowing how much one unit differs from another is an additional property of the interval level
on top of having the properties posses by the ordinal level. When measuring temperature in
Celsius, a 10 degree difference has the same meaning anywhere along the scale – the difference
between 10 and 20 degree Celsius is the same as between 80 and 90 centigrade. But, we cannot
say that 80 degrees Celsius is twice as hot as 40 degrees Celsius since there is no true zero, but
only an arbitrary zero point. A measurement of 0 degrees Celsius does not reflect a true "lack of
temperature." Thus, Celsius scale is in interval level. Other example of a variable measure at the
interval is the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) of a person. We can tell not only which person ranks
higher in IQ but also how much higher he or she ranks with another, but zero IQ does not mean
no intelligence. The students could also be classified or categorized according to their IQ level.
Hence, the IQ as measured in the interval level has also the properties of those measured in the
ordinal as well as those in the nominal level.
Special Note: Inform also the students that the interval level allows addition and subtraction
operations, but it does not possess an absolute zero. Zero is arbitrary as it does not mean the
value does not exist. Zero only represents an additional measurement point.
Ratio level also tells us that one unit has so many times as much of the property as does another
unit. The ratio level possesses a meaningful (unique and non-arbitrary) absolute, fixed zero point
and allows all arithmetic operations. The existence of the zero point is the only difference
between ratio and interval level of measurement. Examples of the ratio scale include mass,
heights, weights, energy and electric charge. With mass as an example, the difference between
120 grams and 135 grams is 15 grams, and this is the same difference between 380 grams and
395 grams. The level at any given point is constant, and a measurement of 0 reflects a complete
lack of mass. Amount of money is also at the ratio level. We can say that 2000 pesos is twice
more than 1,000 pesos. In addition, money has a true zero point: if you have zero money, this
implies the absence of money. For the study on the validity of the statement regarding effect of
breakfast on school performance, the student’s score in the quiz is measured at the ratio level. A
score of zero implies that the student did not get a correct answer at all.
In summary, we have the following levels of measurement:
Level Property Basic Empirical Operation
Nominal No order, distance, or origin Determination of equivalence
 Has order but no distance or
Ordinal Determination of greater or lesser values
unique origin
Both with order and distance but Determination of equality of intervals or
Interval
no unique origin difference
Has order, distance and unique Determination of equality of ratios or
Ratio
origin means

The levels of measurement depend mainly on the method of measurement, not on the property
measured. The weight of primary school students measured in kilograms has a ratio level, but the
students can be categorized into overweight, normal, underweight, and in which case, the weight
is then measured in an ordinal level. Also, many levels are only interval because their zero point
is arbitrarily chosen.

Let us assess your understanding of the lesson, let us go back to the set of variables in the data
gathering activity done in Lesson 2. Let us identify the level of measurement for each of the
variable.

VARIABLE LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT

Class Student Number Nominal
Sex Nominal
Number of Siblings Ratio
Weight (in kilograms) Ratio
Height (in centimeters) Ratio
Age of Mother Ratio
Usual Daily Allowance in School (in pesos) Ratio
Usual Daily Food Expenditure in School (in pesos) Ratio
Usual Number of Text Messages Sent in a Day Ratio
Usual Sleeping Time Nominal
Most Preferred Color Nominal
Happiness Index for the Day Ordinal

2. Methods of Data Collection

Variables were observed or measured using any of the three methods of data collection, namely:
objective, subjective and use of existing records. The objective and subjective methods obtained
the data directly from the source. The former uses any or combination of the five senses (sense
of sight, touch, hearing, taste and smell) to measure the variable while the latter obtains data by
getting responses through a questionnaire. The resulting data from these two methods of data
collection is referred to as primary data. The data gathered in Lesson 2 are primary data and
were obtained using the subjective method.

On the other hand, secondary data are obtained through the use of existing records or data
collected by other entities for certain purposes. For example, when we use data gathered by the
Philippine Statistics Authority, we are using secondary data and the method we employ to get the
data is the use of existing records. Other data sources include administrative records, news
articles, internet, and the like. However, we must emphasize to the students that when we use
existing data we must be confident of the quality of the data we are using by knowing how the
data were gathered. Also, we must remember to request permission and acknowledge the source
of the data when using data gathered by other agency or people.

KEY POINTS
• Four levels of measurement: Nominal, Ordinal, Interval and Ratio
• Knowing what level the variable was measured or observed will guide us to know the type of
analysis to apply.
• Three methods of data collection include objective, subjective and use of existing records.
• Using the data collection method as basis, data can be classified as either primary or
secondary data.

REFERENCES
Albert, J. R. G. (2008). Basic Statistics for the Tertiary Level (ed. Roberto Padua, Welfredo
Patungan, Nelia Marquez), published by Rex Bookstore.

Handbook of Statistics 1 (1st and 2nd Edition), Authored by the Faculty of the Institute of
Statistics, UP Los Baños, College Laguna 4031
Takahashi, S. (2009). The Manga Guide to Statistics. Trend-Pro Co. Ltd.

Workbooks in Statistics 1 (From 1st to 13th Edition), Authored by the Faculty of the Institute of
Statistics, UP Los Baños, College Laguna 4031