Research Methods

Research Methods

Contents
TASK...............................................................................................................................................1
Q1. Identify and explain the four levels of measurement, giving an example of each one.........1
Q2. Explain what is meant by Measures of Central Tendency and Measures of Dispersion......1
Q3. What is the difference between Descriptive Statistics and Inferential Statistics?................2
Q4. Explain the following terms:.................................................................................................2
Q5. Look at the SPSS Output and provide the interpretation of the result for the :....................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

TASK
Q1. Identify and explain the four levels of measurement, giving an example of each one.
Any variable can be measured with the help of using four different levels of measurement
which are being described as follows:
Nominal: In the first measurement level which is nominal measurement, numbers are used
as tags or labels for identification or classification of a data. In this type of measurement, the
numbers don’t serve any purpose other than identification of the data (Bovaird and Koziol,
2012). For example, numbers may be used to identify a particular student from a group of 5
students participating in a race but the number here doesn’t represent any characteristic of the
student.
Ordinal: Ordinal measurement is the second level of measurement which is used to
describe a particular order or ranking between a group of variables. However, it doesn’t specify
the degree of variation between the variables. For example, in a class of 10 students, a student
who scored highest marks in a test can be ranked using number 1 and the student who scored
least marks can be ranked using number 10. Here, the numbers are not only used for
identification but also gives information about the relative marks scored by a student in a test.
Interval: Interval measurement is not only used for identification and ordering of the
variables but also presents information about the difference between the numbers which are used
for interval measurement is equal between adjacent categories. For example, in the Fahrenheit
scale of temperature, the difference of 1 degree between 47 and 48 degrees is equivalent to the
difference of 1 degree between 60 and 61 degrees.
Ratio: Ratio level of measurement is considered to be the most informative because it
helps in identification, also provides ranking, also denotes the same difference between two
intervals and in addition it also has a zero point or position (Freelon, 2013). The zero relates to
the absence of the variable. For example, a person has money in his pocket which can be 50
Euros, 60 Euros or zero. The zero here represents the absence of money or no money with the
person.
Q2. Explain what is meant by Measures of Central Tendency and Measures of Dispersion.
Measures of central tendency refers to a set of statistical tools such as mean, median or mode
which provides information about the middle or central value of a set of data or distribution
1