Shooter Grrl Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 Can someone please explain, in english, what these terms mean? 1. Below are listed some objects of varying degrees of abstraction. Suggest attributes of each of these objects that can be measured by each of the four basic types of scales (nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio scales). a. Store customers. b. Voter attitudes. c. Hardness of steel alloys. d. Preference for a particular common stock. e. Profitability of various divisions in a company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingman Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 I will post them in a second, I am pulling out my old text to refresh my mind. I have a BS in econ so I will try to help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 The "varying degrees of abstraction" just mean to take the list below and pick something related to each item on the list that can be measured by the 4 different stats terms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 Basically... define nominal scale and give an example of it for a, b, c, d ,& e Then do the same for each of the other scales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingman Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 Interval scale - you have a scale, with an arbitrary point of 0, could be used for water tide heights. Nominal data is coded stuff. Like M or F, each item can only be coded one way. Ordinal data can be placed in order, but not measured. For example rate how you feel from 1 to 5. that type of thing. I am sorry but I don't have any real description of ratio scales so going totally from memory its basically like 1:2. for every 1 person that does one thing 2 do the other. Hope that helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidwiz Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 Here is a good glossary of stat terms - it seems to have everything you're looking for http://dorakmt.tripod.com/mtd/glosstat.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter Grrl Posted August 3, 2004 Author Share Posted August 3, 2004 Nominal variable: A qualitative variable defined by mutually exclusive unordered categories such as blood groups, races, sex etc. (see also ordinal variable). Is this English? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AikiDale Posted August 4, 2004 Share Posted August 4, 2004 It is English, derived from Jargon which evolved from mostly Latin, which was intended to precisely define one's terms in order to enhance communication. Eshcew Obfuscation! Have a nice day anyway! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
short_round Posted August 4, 2004 Share Posted August 4, 2004 Eshcew Obfuscation! God bless you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted August 4, 2004 Share Posted August 4, 2004 Googled it. Nominal Scale -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nominal measurement consists of assigning items to groups or categories. No quantitative information is conveyed and no ordering of the items is implied. Nominal scales are therefore qualitative rather than quantitative. Religious preference, race, and sex are all examples of nominal scales. Frequency distributions are usually used to analyze data measured on a nominal scale. The main statistic computed is the mode. Variables measured on a nominal scale are often referred to as categorical or qualitative variables. Ordinal scale -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Measurements with ordinal scales are ordered in the sense that higher numbers represent higher values. However, the intervals between the numbers are not necessarily equal. For example, on a five-point rating scale measuring attitudes toward gun control, the difference between a rating of 2 and a rating of 3 may not represent the same difference as the difference between a rating of 4 and a rating of 5. There is no "true" zero point for ordinal scales since the zero point is chosen arbitrarily. The lowest point on the rating scale in the example was arbitrarily chosen to be 1. It could just as well have been 0 or -5. Interval scale-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On interval measurement scales, one unit on the scale represents the same magnitude on the trait or characteristic being measured across the whole range of the scale. For example, if anxiety were measured on an interval scale, then a difference between a score of 10 and a score of 11 would represent the same difference in anxiety as would a difference between a score of 50 and a score of 51. Interval scales do not have a "true" zero point, however, and therefore it is not possible to make statements about how many times higher one score is than another. For the anxiety scale, it would not be valid to say that a person with a score of 30 was twice as anxious as a person with a score of 15. True interval measurement is somewhere between rare and nonexistent in the behavioral sciences. No interval-level scale of anxiety such as the one described in the example actually exists. A good example of an interval scale is the Fahrenheit scale for temperature. Equal differences on this scale represent equal differences in temperature, but a temperature of 30 degrees is not twice as warm as one of 15 degrees. Ratio scale-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratio scales are like interval scales except they have true zero points. A good example is the Kelvin scale of temperature. This scale has an absolute zero. Thus, a temperature of 300 Kelvin is twice as high as a temperature of 150 Kelvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diehli Posted August 4, 2004 Share Posted August 4, 2004 I had statistics once. Didn't get anything wrong on any of the tests. What do I remember? Nothing... absolutely nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter Grrl Posted August 4, 2004 Author Share Posted August 4, 2004 Cool flexhoney - where did you get that? I may need it again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted August 4, 2004 Share Posted August 4, 2004 I went to google.com, then put in each term individually. That let me read a few different websites that defined the terms...and find one that sounded more like plain talk than others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sterling White Posted August 4, 2004 Share Posted August 4, 2004 http://www.ask.com/ This link is an awesome search engine. Just type: "nominal scale" into the text box and hit enter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter Grrl Posted August 4, 2004 Author Share Posted August 4, 2004 Thanks Sterling. I need all the help I can get with this stuff! Anyone wanna do my homework for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted August 4, 2004 Share Posted August 4, 2004 Thanks Sterling. I need all the help I can get with this stuff! Anyone wanna do my homework for me You are there to learn, not turn in work. Get your money's worth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter Grrl Posted August 4, 2004 Author Share Posted August 4, 2004 Yeah well, the learning ain't happenin'! It's very frustrating. While struggling with this first set of terms, I've missed the rest of the weeks learnin' cause I never got the foundation. I asked about switching instructors, and sure I can, but I have to pay for the week I've attended in this one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajm Posted August 6, 2004 Share Posted August 6, 2004 Someone got to it first but here is my english version. Nominal scale - football jerseys. They are numbers but have no meaning beyond naming the thing. No math possible. Ordinal scale - place of finish in a match. 1 is better than 2 and 2 better than 3 but no idea how much better. No math possible. Interval - Farenheight or Celcius temperature scales. Now add equal intervals to order and you know not only which is better but also by how much. Weakness here is that there is an arbitrary Zero point so you can add and subtract (or just subtract as addition is simply a form of subtraction) but you cannot multiply or divide. Ratio scale - the top has a set zero point and equal intervals so you can do all mathmatical functions. Time on a Stage. Height in inches. Standard Deviations, Z scores. Qualitative - things that are different from each other in a basic quality. If you are male, you cannot be female (I know etc.) Point is that with qualitative variables you cannot score one as more than the other(s) as they are really different such as apples vs oranges. Quantative - things which have the same basic properties but which vary in amount such as size of apples or size of eggs. The point is that a scale can be developed and any member of this variable can then be placed on the scale and can be compared to any other member. With qualitative variables the quality of the thing changes with quantative variables the amount (quantity) of the thing changes. Measures of central tendency: Mean - the mathematical center of a group of scores also called a distribution. Median - the physical middle of the group. The point at which one half of the group falls below that point. Mode - the most frequent score in the group. Mode very unstable, no math possible. Median very stable and useful if extreme scores can influence the math. No math possible. Mean, Math is done to get it - add all scores and divide by the number of scores in the group. Math is possible and all derivative scores are based on the Mean. Not good if very extreme scores are involved. Income in US is reported as Median due to very extreme scores on the top end that would make the mean unrepresentative of the actual distribution. (We use the mean to indicate the average of our ammo velocity.) you shoot 10 rounds and then get average that is the mean. Standard Deviation - how much do the scores vary around the mean. In shooting we use the standard deviation to measure how consistent our ammo is. Two batches of ammo have same mean but one has a SD of 4 and one an SD of 10 the batch with lower SD is more consistent, that is it varies less from the mean than the other. Hope this helps. ajm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince Pinto Posted August 6, 2004 Share Posted August 6, 2004 OH MY GOD! I've stumbled into the Klingon Communications Centre. Give me warp speed and get me the hell outta here ...... NOW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schmitz Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 OH MY GOD!I've stumbled into the Klingon Communications Centre. Give me warp speed and get me the hell outta here ...... NOW. Vince ??? Star Trek vs Starwars??? (Trekkie) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter Grrl Posted August 12, 2004 Author Share Posted August 12, 2004 AJM you are MY HERO! Thank you! It is just AWESOME that you were able to put it into words and thoughts that are relevant for me! I GOT IT FINALLY WOOOOOHOOOOOOOO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AikiDale Posted August 12, 2004 Share Posted August 12, 2004 Someone got to it first but here is my english version.Nominal scale - football jerseys. They are numbers but have no meaning beyond naming the thing. No math possible. Ordinal scale - place of finish in a match. 1 is better than 2 and 2 better than 3 but no idea how much better. No math possible. .... Wonderful. If you have a book "Math for English Majors" I'll buy it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajm Posted August 14, 2004 Share Posted August 14, 2004 Thanks for the kind words, I teach some graduate psychology including statistics and research methods at a couple of local colleges and have found that everyone actually understands most of this stuff if you can find a good analogy. To me, Pretty much everything works the same way and what we see as differences seem to me to be more about our perspective and self imposed limitations than actual incongruencies. If you post any more questions like this I will try to answer and you can PM me if there is a hurry. ajm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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