1. Applications to Social Work Research
Levels of Measurement
Applications to
Social Work Research

2. Levels of Measurement
Refers to the precision of data collected for a research study
Has implications for types of statistical procedure that can be done
Important foundation knowledge for statistics

3. Four Levels of Measurement
Nominal
Ordinal
Interval
Ratio

4. Nominal
Classifies elements into two or more mutually exclusive categories
Categories should exhaustive (include all possibilities)
Examples of nominal variables include sex, race, and

5. Nominal Level Example 1 Sex is a nominal level variable
A person can be either female or male
Male
female

6. Nominal Level Example 2
A person could be either European American, Asian American, or African American
European American
Asian American
African American

7. Ordinal Level Data Classifies and ranks elements or scores
Definite order to categories
Examples include socio-economic status and difficulty of care

8. Ordinal Level Data Example 1
Categories of socio-economic status (SES) can be low-income, middle income, and high income.