5 Critival Thinking Numbers are often assigned to data that

5. Critival Thinking: Numbers are often assigned to data that are categorical in nature.

(a) Consider these number assignments for category items describing electonic ways of expressing personal opinions:

1 = Twitter; 2 = e-mail; 3 = text message; 4 = Facebook; 5 = blog

Are these numerical assignments at the ordinal data level or higher? Explain.

(b) Consider these numbers assignments for category item describing usefulness of customer service:

1 = not helpful; 2 = somewhat helpful; 3 = very helpful; 4 = extermely helpful

Are these numerical assignments at the ordinal data level? Explain. What about at the interval level or higher? Explain.

Solution

a)

An ordinal scale indicates direction, in addition to providing nominal information. Low/Medium/High; or Faster/Slower are examples of ordinal levels of measurement. Ranking an experience as a \"nine\" on a scale of 1 to 10 tells us that it was higher than an experience ranked as a \"six.\" Many psychological scales or inventories are at the ordinal level of measurement.

so for these numerical assignments are not ordinal data level

b)

yes these numerical assignments are at the ordinal data leve