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Measurement and Scaling

Dr. Teena Shivnani

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Measurement
 Measurement means assigning numbers or other
symbols to characteristics/ properties of an
objects.

It generally quantitative in nature.

E.g. Gender, Marital Status, Yes/ No etc.

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Scaling
• A scale is range in which a researcher captures
the intensity, direction, level, or potency of a
variable.

• Series of items arranged according to value for

the purpose of quantification.

E.g. Consider an attitude scale from 1 to 5.

1 = Extremely Unfavorable, and 5 = Extremely Favorable.

E.g. Consider the feed back of students from 1 to 5 scale.

1= Poor, 2= average, 3 = good, 4 = Very good, 5 =
Excellent.
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Different Types of scales

Nominal Scale

Ordinal Scale

Interval Scale

Ratio Scale
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Nominal Scale
 It is simply a system to assigning name,
numbers, symbols to an events in order to
identify/ classify/ label them.
 It simply refer to categories.
 It does not have any quantity or ranking
implication.
 Nominal measurement is the lowest level of
measurement - the naming level.
E.g.
Which Political party one belongs to?
 Gender
 State
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Cont.….
• The numbers serve only as labels or tags for identifying
and classifying objects.
• When used for identification, there is a strict one-to-one
correspondence between the numbers and the objects.
• The numbers do not reflect the amount of the
characteristic possessed by the objects.
• The only permissible operation on the numbers in a
nominal scale is counting.
• Only a limited number of statistics, all of which are
based on frequency counts, are permissible, e.g.,
percentages, and mode.
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Nominal Scale
Numbers
Assigned
to Runners 7 8 Finish
3
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Ordinal Scale
• It places events in a order.

• It is related to qualitative phenomena.

• It permits only ranking of the item from highest to

lowest or visa versa.
• It has no absolute values. It implies a statement of
greater than or less than. But it does not say how
much greater or lesser.
• E.g.
Place in a race.
student Rank in class.
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Cont.….
• A ranking scale in which numbers are assigned to objects to
indicate the relative extent to which the objects possess some
characteristic.

• Can determine whether an object has more or less of a

characteristic than some other object, but not how much more
or less.

• Any series of numbers can be assigned that preserves the

ordered relationships between the objects.

• Ordinal scales permit the use of statistics based on centiles,

e.g., percentile, quartile, median.
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Ordinal Scale

Rank
Order
of Winners
Finish

First Second Third

place place place
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Interval Scale
Temperature
• An interval scale assumes that the
measurements are made in equal units.
However, an interval scale does not
have to have a true zero.

• Good examples of interval scales are

the Fahrenheit and Celsius temperature
scales.

Range of Values
A temperature of "zero" does not mean
that there is no temperature...it is just an
arbitrary zero point.
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Cont.….
• Numerically equal distances on the scale represent equal
values in the characteristic being measured.
• It permits comparison of the differences between objects.

• The location of the zero point is not fixed. Both the zero
point and the units of measurement are arbitrary.
• Any positive linear transformation of the form y = a + bx
will preserve the properties of the scale.
• It is not meaningful to take ratios of scale values.

• Statistical techniques that may be used include all of

those that can be applied to nominal and ordinal data, and
in addition the arithmetic mean, standard deviation, and
other statistics commonly used in marketing research.
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Ratio Scale
• Possesses all the properties of the nominal, ordinal, and
interval scales.
• A ratio scale is the same as an interval scale, but includes
a true zero point.
• It allows comparisons to be made between points on the
scale.

E.g.
• Someone travelling at 50mph is travelling twice as fast as
someone travelling 25mph.
• The number of hours spent watching television
• The number of words in an article.
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Cont.…
• Possesses all the properties of the nominal,
ordinal, and interval scales.

• It has an absolute zero point.

• It is meaningful to compute ratios of scale values.

• Only proportionate transformations of the form y

= bx, where b is a positive constant, are allowed.

• All statistical techniques can be applied to ratio

data.
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Primary Scales of Measurement

Fig. 8.1
Scale
Nominal Numbers Finish
Assigned
7 8 3
to Runners

Ordinal Rank Order Finish

of Winners
Third Second First
place place place

Interval Performance
Rating on a 8.2 9.1 9.6
0 to 10 Scale

Ratio Time to 15.2 14.1 13.4

Finish, in
Seconds
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Primary Scales of Measurement

Table 8.1
Scale Basic Common Marketing Permissible Statistics
Characteristics Examples Examples Descriptive Inferential
Nominal Numbers identify Social Security Brand nos., store Percentages, Chi-square,
& classify objects nos., numbering types mode binomial test
of football players
Ordinal Nos. indicate the Quality rankings, Preference Percentile, Rank-order
relative positions rankings of teams rankings, market median correlation,
of objects but not in a tournament position, social Friedman
the magnitude of class ANOVA
differences
between them
Interval Differences Temperature Attitudes, Range, mean, Product-
between objects (Fahrenheit) opinions, index standard moment
Ratio Zero point is fixed, Length, weight Age, sales, Geometric Coefficient of
ratios of scale income, costs mean, harmonic variation
values can be mean
compared
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Illustration of Primary Scales of Measurement

Table 8.2
Nominal Ordinal Interval Ratio
Scale Scale Scale Scale
Preference Preference $ spent
last No. Store RankingsRatings
3 months 1-7 11-17
7 79 5 15 0
1. Parisian 2 25 7 17 200
2. Macy’s 8 82 4 14 0
3. Kmart 3 30 6 16 100
4. Kohl’s 1 10 7 17 250
5. J.C. Penney 5 53 5 15 35
6. Neiman Marcus 9 95 4 14 0
7. Marshalls 6 61 5 15 100
8. Saks Fifth Avenue 4 45 6 16 0
9. Sears 10 115 2 12 10
10.Wal-Mart
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Examples
of
Measurement and Scaling
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Q1. Identify the type of scale (nominal, ordinal,

interval, or ratio) being used in each of the
following questions. Justify your answers.
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During which season of the year you were

born?

• Winter
• Spring
• Summer
• Fall

Nominal- the measurement identifies or

categorizes the seasons.
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What is your total household income?

• Ratio- Income has a natural zero and equal intervals
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Which are your three most preferred candy bars?

Rank them from 1 to 3 according to your preference,
with 1 as most preferred.

• M & M plain
• M & M peanut
• Reese’s
• Almond Joy
• Good N’ Plenty

Ordinal- the measurement indicates rank position

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How much time do you spend traveling to

school every day?
• Under 5minutes
• 5-10 minutes
• 11-15 minutes
• 16-20 minutes
• 21 minutes or more

Ratio- Number of minutes has a natural zero and

equal intervals even though the measurement
categorizes the time intervals in groups of
unequal size.
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How satisfied are you with

Newsweek magazine?
• Very satisfied
• Satisfied
• Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
• Dissatisfied
• Very dissatisfied

ordinal- the scale is only ordinal.

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On an average, how many cigarettes

do you smoke in a day?
• Over 1 pack
• ½ to 1 pack
• Less than ½ pack

Ratio- Number of cigarettes has a natural zero

and equal intervals.
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Which of the following courses you

have taken?
• Marketing research
• Sales management
• Advertising management
• Consumer behavior

Nominal- The measurement identifies particular

courses as having been completed.
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What is the level of education for the head of

the household?

• Some high school

• H.S. school
• Some college
• College graduate and/or graduate work

Ordinal- The measurement of education level

indicates rank position
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Thanking You