measurement 5

a characteristic that can vary or take on different values

• ex) height is a variable
• ** independent and dependent variable

a number representing one of many possible states of the variable

ex) some possible values are 6 ft or 4 feet 2 inches

a specific value for a given person

ex) my score on the variable of height is 5 feet 11 inches

it is critical to have a well defined or quantative system of measurement.

• ex) how far are you sititng from screen?
• ***use ruler or tape meausre to measure it

Yes!

• quantitative
• ** subject to numeric qualification

subject to numeric qualification

categorical or continuous

people either belong to a group or they do not.

ex) country of origin, biological sex, animal or non animal, married vs single

*how many people belong to each category?

-people vary in a graded way with respect to the property of interest

ex) age, working memory capacity, and marital discord

quantitative q: how much? or to what extent or degree?

-designates an ordering; quasi-ranking

-does not assume that the intervals between numbers are equal

ex) finishing place in a race (first place, second place)

-designates an equal-interval ordering

distance between a 1 and 2 is same distance as 4 and 5

ex) common IQ tests

• -designates an equal-interval ordering with a true zero
• * zero implies an absence of the thing being measured

• ex) number of intimate relationships a peron has had.
• *zero means none
• * a person with 4 has had twice as many as 2

ratio-scale

on general by interval scales

• variables: categorical
•                 COntinuous: ordinal, interval, ratio