Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ordinal Variables
Related in a Meaningful Sequence Age : 16-24, 25-34, 35- 44 etc.
Interval Variables
Same as Ordinal but Always equally Spaced Categories Cannot identify a Start Point on the scale used Measures responses relatively not absolutely Inefficient ................................Efficient
1.........2................3..............4..............5
Ratio Variables
As for Interval But Equal Intervals between Categories Recognised Zero Point so that Absolute measures can be made E.g. How many meetings did you attend discrete measure of 1,2,3 etc.
Categorical Data
Nominal and Ordinal Variables collect such data Require Respondents to Choose from
Independent and Mutually Exclusive categories
Questions which ask for choice from 1 or more categories E.G. Behaviour, Attitudes etc.
Continuous Data
Interval and Ratio Variables collect such data Responses can be related to each other Range of possible answers have an equal distance between each other
Mean
Measure of the Average Calculated arithmetically Add all values and divide by number of responses Only for Interval and Ratio Variables
Median
Measures the middle response where All responses are lined up in ascending or descending order All variables except Nominals which cannot be placed in such an order Useful where there are extreme values unrepresentative of sample
Measuring Dispersion
Minimum Maximum Range Variance Standard Deviation
Variance
Amount of spread overall Indicates how data are clustered around the Mean Required to calculate Standard Deviation
Standard Deviation
Indicates by how much the average respondent differs from the overall average Smaller the Std. Dev. The more closely responses are clustered about the mean Closely clustered responses imply that members of the sample hold similar opinions