3.1 Variables like age can utilize different levels of measurement. Give an exam

Question

3.1 Variables like age can utilize different levels of measurement. Give an example of how you could create a variable for AGE using each of level of measurement. If not possible, state why:

Continuous:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Ordinal:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Nominal:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

3.2 Now try to come up with an example for temperature:

Continuous:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Ordinal:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Nominal:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

3.3. Is it possible to do the same for standard race/ethnicity categories?

Continuous:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Ordinal:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Nominal:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Explanation / Answer

3.1 Variables like age can utilize different levels of measurement. Give an example of how you could create a variable for AGE using each of level of measurement. If not possible, state why:

Continuous: Age is, technically, continuous and ratio. A person’s age does, after all, have a meaningful zero point (birth) and is continuous if you measure it precisely enough. It is meaningful to say that someone (or something) is 7.28 year old.

Ordinal: It’s not uncommon to give people age categories as possible responses on a survey. Common reasons are that people don’t want to reveal their actual age or because they don’t remember the actual age at which some event occurred. In an experiment, rather than have respondents guess inaccurately or leave the answer blank, the researchers gave them a series of ordered age categories: 0 to 10, 11-12, 13-15, 16-17, etc. They gave up precision to gain accuracy.

Nominal: It is not possible as age has an inherent ordering in it so we cannot possibly attach a nominal measurement level to it

3.2 Example for temperature:

Continuous: When we measure today's temperature we do it in a continuous scale.For example, today's temperature is 20 degree celsius. Ordinal: When we classify temperature to be high, medium or low for basic understanding of the temperature when actual temperature cannot be known due to technical difficulties. Nominal: In general temperature also cannot have a nominal measurement level as it also has an inherent ordering in it. But if we attach weather to it then it can have an nominal measurement level namely humid, rainy, cloudy etc.

3.3. Is it possible to do the same for standard race/ethnicity categories?

Continuous: Continuous data is not possible at all as there are finitely many race/ethnicity categories and they form a discrete set and it is not possible to generate continuous measurement level from a discrete data set. Ordinal: Ordinal level of measurement is also not possible as ordering ethnicity categories is not possible in general without any other variable. Nominal: Nominal level of measurement is most common for ethnicity data. We get this type of measurement if we classify them as Asian, African American, Hispanic, Caucasian etc

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