{"id":8652,"date":"2019-05-22T16:10:02","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/ordinal_variables\/"},"modified":"2019-05-22T16:10:02","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:10:02","slug":"ordinal_variables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/ordinal_variables\/","title":{"rendered":"Ordinal variables"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Variables in which higher numbers indicate higher levels of that which is measured, but the differences between adjacent numbers are not necessarily equal. &nbsp;Thus, what matters is the order, but not the values between variables. &nbsp;On ordinal measurement scales. they imply ordering of categories while the quantitative distance between levels is unknown, and the meaning of different levels may not be the same for different individuals. &nbsp;The actual scale of measurement for most ordinal variables is the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.socialresearchmethods.net\/kb\/scallik.php\" class=\"cc-route-enabled\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/www.socialresearchmethods.net\/kb\/scallik.php&amp;target=_self\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Likert scale<\/a>, and typically used in questionnaires. &nbsp;In fact, ordinal variables or scale is part of &nbsp;classification of a four-category classification of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/naveeddil\/spss-measurement-scales\" class=\"cc-route-enabled\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/naveeddil\/spss-measurement-scales&amp;target=_self\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">measurement scales<\/a> devised by the psychologist <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/naveeddil\/spss-measurement-scales\" class=\"cc-route-enabled\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/naveeddil\/spss-measurement-scales&amp;target=_self\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stanley Smith Stevens<\/a> (1906-1976) in 1946. &nbsp;The other variables were: categorical (nominal), interval and ratio. &nbsp;Categorical variable applies to mutually exclusive, but ordered, variables. &nbsp;An interval variable is similar to an ordinal scale, but the intervals between the values are equally spaced. &nbsp;Sometimes there are variables that take a middle position between ordinal and interval, such as a five-point Likert scale, with values given as, for example, strongly agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree. &nbsp;A ratio variable, like interval variables, have equal intervals between values. &nbsp;However, a ratio variable has a clear and meaningful zero point. &nbsp;An example of a ratio variable is heart rate, but really does find application in behavioral research. &nbsp;Finally. a variable expressed at one level at another (lower) one, but the reverse is not true. &nbsp;For example <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/Livewell\/loseweight\/Pages\/BodyMassIndex.aspx\" class=\"cc-route-enabled\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/Livewell\/loseweight\/Pages\/BodyMassIndex.aspx&amp;target=_self\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BMI <\/a>is typically measured on the interval scale, but can be transformed to ordinal categories (&gt;: obese, 25-29.9: overweight, and&nbsp;&lt;25: underweight. &nbsp;From here, nominal categories can be derived: overweight and not overweight. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>See <a href=\"measurement_efficacy\">Measurement efficacy<\/a>, <a href=\"measurement_theory\">Measurement theory<\/a>, <a href=\"rating_scale\">Rating scale<\/a>, <a href=\"variable\">Variable<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Variables in which higher numbers indicate higher levels of that which is measured, but the differences between adjacent numbers are not necessarily equal. &nbsp;Thus, what matters is the order, but not the values between variables. &nbsp;On ordinal measurement scales. they imply ordering of categories while the quantitative distance between levels is unknown, and the meaning &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/ordinal_variables\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Ordinal variables&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-8652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-glossary","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8652\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}