MEASUREMENT SCALES

Measurement Scales

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Abstract

The paper talks about the concept of measurement scales in questionnaires and surveys. Moreover, it develops an understanding about the various types of measurement scales used in research along with their application in questionnaire and surveys.Table of Contents

Abstracti

Introduction2

Discussion2

Measurement Scales2

Properties of Measurement Scales2

Nominal Scale3

Ordinal Scale3

Interval Scale4

Ratio Scale4

Conclusion5

References6

Measurement Scales

Introduction

Scales and questionnaires are used widely in clinical practice and research. They differ significantly in the type and method of data collection. Normally they are used as a time efficient and low cost means of obtaining data by researchers. However, the efficiencies achieved in using such methods need to be strictly examined when used for research, since these questionnaires are the key basis on which the whole research was conducted and acts as the primary data source within a research.

Discussion

Measurement Scales

Measurement is the transmission of numbers to an object or an event in a systematic way. Basically, measurement scales are use to classify the variables. Generally, there are four types of measurement scales used i.e. nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio. However, there are also undimensional and multidimensional measurement scales. The difference between all of them is the appropriateness of various statistical techniques i.e. the usage of central tendency as in mean, median and mode.

Properties of Measurement Scales

Each measurement scale is used to describe one or all of the following properties.

Every value on the measurement has a unique meaning.

They have an ordered relationship with one another.

Every unit on the scale is equal to one another.

The scale has an absolute zero point below which no value exists.

Nominal Scale

The nominal scale only describes the identity property of the measurement scale. The values in nominal scale only correspond to the descriptive category such as age, race, gender etc, and there is no inherent numerical value attached to this scale. Frequency distributions are ...