Measurement is considered the pedestal of a creditable research and while doing research a couple of things should be taken into account to reach at a scientific culmination. It is imperative to use the four measurement scales to get pertinent results while doing any research in the field of social and behavioral sciences. These four measurement scales are – Normal, Ordinal, Interval and Ratio measurement scale. Researcher should be very careful about the application of these methods and should know which research formulae have to be applied on the given statistics.
Nominal scale can be classified as the lowest scale of measurement. In this scale, numbers are assigned to classify the statistics arbitrarily. Contrary to the nominal scale, ordinal scale recognizes the value of numbers and also the identity. Interval scale is used to compare the data in a provided range and no absolute zero point is available in this scale. In the ratio measurement scale there is affixed zero point.
While doing a hypothetical research to decide the gender of people, nominal research would be more relevant because Nominal measurement can be used for variables, it can produce good result in determining the sex. While searching the result of a race, the use of ordinal scale would be producing better results because it indicates about the rank. Example of interval scale is the difference between the pound and kilogram because interval scales have no absolute zero points. Since there is a provision of a fixed zero point in ratio scale, time could be an example of it because we can make certain calculations based on it.
After observing abovementioned analysis it is easy to find out that measurement scales should be used carefully and their proper application is must for the appropriate results. A good scale is the scale that produces same results in same circumstances.
Reference
Berka, K. (1983). Measurement: its concepts, theories, and problems . Dordrecht : D. Reidel Publishing Company.
