The Levels of Measurement in Statistics

Not all data is created equally. It is helpful to classify data sets by different criteria. Some is quantitative, and some are qualitative. Some data sets are continuous and some are discrete. Another way to separate data is to classify it into four levels of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio. Different levels of measurement call for different statistical techniques. We will look at each of these levels of measurement.​ Nominal Level of Measurement The nominal level of measurement is the lowest of the four ways to characterize data. Nominal means in name only and that should help to remember what this level is all about. Nominal data deals with names, categories, or labels. Data at the nominal level is qualitative. Colors of eyes, yes or no responses to a survey, and favorite breakfast cereal all deal with the nominal level of measurement. Even some things with numbers associated with them, such as a number on the back of a football jersey, are nominal since it is used to name an individual player on the field. Data at this level cant be ordered in a meaningful way, and it makes no sense to calculate things such as means and standard deviations. Ordinal Level of Measurement The next level is called the ordinal level of measurement. Data at this level can be ordered, but no differences between the data can be taken that are meaningful. Here you should think of things like a list of the top ten cities to live. The data, here ten cities, are ranked from one to ten, but differences between the cities dont make much sense. Theres no way from looking at just the rankings to know how much better life is in city number 1 than city number 2. Another example of this are letter grades. You can order things so that A is higher than a B, but without any other information, there is no way of knowing how much better an A is from a B. As with the nominal level, data at the ordinal level should not be used in calculations. Interval Level of Measurement The interval level of measurement deals with data that can be ordered, and in which differences between the data does make sense. Data at this level does not have a starting point. The Fahrenheit and Celsius scales of temperatures are both examples of data at the interval level of measurement. You can talk about 30 degrees being 60 degrees less than 90 degrees, so differences do make sense. However, 0 degrees (in both scales) cold as it may be does not represent the total absence of temperature. Data at the interval level can be used in calculations. However, data at this level does lack one type of comparison. Even though 3 x 30 90, it is not correct to say that 90 degrees Celsius is three times as hot as 30 degrees Celsius. Ratio Level of Measurement The fourth and highest level of measurement is the ratio level. Data at the ratio level possess all of the features of the interval level, in addition to a zero value. Due to the presence of a zero, it now makes sense to compare the ratios of measurements. Phrases such as four times and twice are meaningful at the ratio level. Distances, in any system of measurement, give us data at the ratio level. A measurement such as 0 feet does make sense, as it represents no length. Furthermore, 2 feet is twice as long as 1 foot. So ratios can be formed between the data. At the ratio level of measurement, not only can sums and differences be calculated, but also ratios. One measurement can be divided by any nonzero measurement, and a meaningful number will result. Think Before You Calculate Given a list of Social Security numbers, its possible to do all sorts of calculations with them, but none of these calculations give anything meaningful. Whats one Social Security number divided by another one? A complete waste of your time, since Social Security numbers are at the nominal level of measurement. When you are given some data, think before you calculate. The level of measurement youre working with will determine what it makes sense to do.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Group Liability - 1706 Words

Abstract: An extensive debate exists about the advantages and disadvantages of group liability. In group liability, a group of individuals are responsible for each other’s loans if one member defaults, versus individual liability, where only the borrower is at risk if they default. Group liability in microcredit purports to improve repayment rates through peer screening, monitoring, and enforcement. However, it may create excessive pressure, and discourage reliable clients from borrowing. (1) Summary of the Article: Researchers examined two trials conducted by the Green Bank of Caraga to evaluate the effects of group liability relative to individual liability on monitoring and enforcing loans. In the first trial, a randomly selected half of the bank’s 169 existing group-lending centers on the island of Leyte were converted to the individual liability model, phased in over time. Researchers could then isolate the impact of group liability on behavior through peer pressure by comparing the repayment behavior of existing clients in group-liability centers and converted individual liability centers. Centers were then assigned to comparison, individual liability or staggered individual liability (the first loan for each member is covered by group liability, but subsequent loans have individual liability). Critical to the design is the fact that individual-liability centers were converted from existing centers, and not newly created. By comparing the repayment behavior ofShow MoreRelatedAdvantages And Disadvantages Of Sole Proprietorship1161 Words   |  5 Pageslimited liability companies, subchapter S corporations, and regular corporations are all different forms of a business. Each one has different advantages and disadvantages that make them their own unique business form. The simplest form of business is a sole proprietorship. 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Communication Process Paper free essay sample

No individual, group, or organization can exist without communication: the transfer of meaning among its members. It is only through transmitting meaning from one person to another that information and ideas can be conveyed. Communication, however, is more than merely imparting meaning. It must also be understood. Before communication can take place, a purpose, expressed as a message to be conveyed, is needed. It passes between a sender and a receiver. The message is encoded (converted to a symbolic form) and passed by way of some medium (channel) to the receiver, who retranslates (decodes) the message initiated by the sender. The result is transfer of meaning from one person to another. In this paper I will be describing the communication climate in my organization as a whole. I will be explaining the strengths and weaknesses of my organization’s communication. I will be explaining the management approach of your organization’s supervisors, managers, and executives contribute to or detract from effective communication. I will also provide an example that supports my view. The key parts of the communication process consist of the sender, encoding, the message, the channel, decoding, the receiver, noise, and feedback. The sender initiates a message by encoding a thought. The message is the actual physical product from the sender’s encoding. When we speak, the speech is the message. When we write, the writing is the message. When we gesture, the movements of our arms and the expressions on our faces are the message. The channel is the medium through which the message travels. It is selected by the sender, who must determine whether to use a formal or informal channel. The receiver is the object to whom the message is directed. But before the message can be received, the symbols in it must be translated into a form that can be understood by the receiver. This step is the decoding of the message. Noise represents communication barriers that distort the clarity of the message. Examples of possible noise sources include perceptual problems, information overload, semantic difficulties, 3 or cultural differences. The final link in the communication process is a feedback loop. Feedback is the check on how successful we have been in transferring our messages as originally intended. It determines whether understanding has been achieved. The communication climate of my organization as a whole is an open, clear communication climate which I feel tends to increase productivity. Also of importance is a certain degree of openness in terms of workers being able to express their opinions and feelings without fear of retaliation. When the employees not only know exactly what is expected of them, but understand that they have the responsibility of meeting those needs, improvement in job performance is likely to be the result. If good job performance is then rewarded favorably, such as through feedback, raises, awards or promotions during scheduled reviews, employees are more likely to keep improving on their productive work behaviors. Communication is mostly done orally and in writing, the manager does this because she wants to make sure everyone understands what is being communicated. The best communication climates foster clarity. My company values and expectations can be communicated in many ways that work to strengthen communication. Managers are able to build a better communication climate by monitoring it and modeling clear communications in conversations, meetings and memos. They have an idea of a win-win situation between the employers and employees forms the strong basis of effective communication climates. The strengths of my organization’s communication are the constant oral meetings that are done to make sure everyone is on the same page. Everything is also done in writing even though the message was already done verbally. During open communication everyone is able to give feedback and voice their opinions. Another strength is that management shows employees that 4 they appreciate our hard work by given raises and feedback on a job well done. Communicating to workers through a system of expectations and rewards helps them own the responsibility to take the initiative in their work and workplace behaviors. Taking responsibility and being expected to take the initiative can also help reduce negative attitudes. 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Management communicated that there was going to be a new policy and they had an employee’s meeting for feedback on the new policy and this feedback was going to help them decide to keep the policy or to come up with another police.

Why Organic Traffic Beats Social and Paid

by Chris Reid The SEO cat and mouse game only intensifies further with Google pushing out over 500 algorithmic updates each year. The SEO guidelines of unique content, engaging articles, and good user experience are old school, and aren’t enough to rank sites now. It is quite common these days that most search engine optimizers give up trying to rank their sites and resort to paid traffic and social media to drive in visitors. But is this traffic as effective as organic traffic? What the Charts Say While paid traffic sources like Google AdWords and traffic from social media often offer perks such as the ability to quickly set up ad campaigns, and traffic without the hassles of SEO, they aren’t as effective as organic traffic. Statistics reveal that about 51% of all traffic to business websites comes from organic search, whereas paid search and social media deliver only 10% and 5% respectively. The reason behind this discrepancy lies within the customer mindset of the traffic from these sources. Why So? Organic traffic tends to be much more effective due to the simple fact that people prefer search engines at every end of their purchase journey, starting from investigation on a particular product to finally making the purchase. Social, on the other hand, is much more suited for connecting with people and promoting brand image even before the people decide whether they need the product. Hence, the relatively small share of social media in traffic is quite justified. While paid search offers webmasters the opportunity to have their webpages placed even above the worthy organic search results, they never tend to convert as well as the organic results due to the simple fact that users don’t trust the ads. While Google is putting in more and more effort to make the ads and organic results to look the same, an increasing number of users are getting to know that the paid results are inferior to the organic results. The Best Way to Go Webmasters need to perceive the significance of organic search and realize that users will always favor organic SERPs (search engine results pages) over social and paid SERPs. Social media exposure can be used more effectively when it is used to promote brand awareness rather than selling. Paid search is best used when it is in addition to SEO. When traffic starts flowing into the site, and popularity and reputation builds up, it is an indication to the search engines that the site is worth ranking. It is true that unique website content, effective content marketing, and good user experiencearen’tenough to land yourwebpages in the SERPs these days. But they are definitely the right way to go. Without these, it is almostguaranteedthat you will have poorconversion rates. Unique content andengaging articles will only catapult the speed of natural linking to the site, and as most SEOs agree, linking is half of the SEO game. Bundle that with the essentials on page optimization and ranking factors like user acceptance and regular content updates, then you’re already far ahead of 90% of those webmasters out there who just resort to paid search and social media advertising when they just can’t rank their sites. If you want to rank in Google, you must deserve to be ranked in Google.