So we will define a value of 0 to strongly disagree. Interval scale refers to the liquor type of scale which ask for the opinion on certain topic and responses vary from Strongly disagree to Strongly agree, and in between, we can have other options. There are two types of Continuous scales, which are Interval scale and Ratio scale. For example, the height of a student, socioeconomic status. So ordinal scales are basically those nominal scales that can be ranked order. But if we measure the height of a student in the class as short height, medium height, and tall height, we can arrange short, medium, and tall in ascending or descending order. So, in this case, it will be a continuous measure. For example, the height of a student in the class can be measured in the meters. So Ordinal scale refers to the scale in which the variables can be categorized, but they can also be ranked order. If we look at the Ordinal variables in the following diagram, we can see three different colors again, but they seem to be ranked order like bars. In the above diagram, we can see a Venn diagram of a nominal scale with three different colors green, blue, and red, indicating the mutual exclusiveness of the categories that we are defining. That's why in SPSS, this scale has been shown through a Venn diagram with different colors like this: So these categories are mutually exclusive. So if we are part of one category, we are already excluded from other categories. For example, the Gender variable has two labels male and female. It means if we are part of one category, we cannot be part of another category. So, Nominal variables are those variables that come in the format of perfect categories or mutually exclusive categories. The categorical variable comes into two formats as Nominal variables and Ordinal variables. So we need a categorical scale to measure the categorical variable. The Categorical scale is also known as Discrete scales. The first one is a Categorical scale of measurement, and the second one is a Continuous scale. All the scales of measurement can be categorized into two parts. The Scale of measurement refers to the measurement scales that can be used for measuring any socio or psychometric property or any variable that we are studying. The ordinal, nominal, and scale measurements are used for quantification. For studying the variables, we need to measure them. If we are from a management background, we must be interested in the management process. If we are from a psychology background, we must be interested in measuring the motivation and personality of the individual. For example, if we are from an anthropology background, we must be interested in measuring blood glucose levels. The Measure is used to measure something or something that refers to the property that we have focusing upon. Measure and scale of measurement both are the same things. So we will quickly try to understand what they are and how we can use them for the SPSS. They are referred to as Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, and Ratio scales of measurement. These are the different types of measures, but all in all, if we have to understand the measures, there are four types of measurement in social science research. So we have Nominal, Ordinal, and Scale type of measurement.
If we select any variable, we can see three types of measure, as shown in the following diagram: The treatment of data and the choice of the right statistical test depend upon the kind of measure we have taken for the variable.
The measure is a property that is used to define the label of measurement used in a variable. In this section, we will learn about the measure option in SPSS. Next → ← prev Scale of Measurement in SPSS