Week 2 Module 2: Measurements

how is measurement defined?

its the process of assigning numerals to variables to represent quantities of characteristics according to certain rules

why do we measure things?

describe quality/quantity

make decisions based on standards

choose actions

compare individuals/groups

prediction

what is a variable?

property that can differentiate individuals or objects

what are numerals?

symbol/label represented by number

what are descriptive statistics?

they describe and summarize data using numbers, tables, or graphs

what are inferential statistics?

analyze data from a sample representative of a population in order to make inferences about the whole population- predict something

what is the population?

a group of individuals or observations sharing some characteristics

what is a sample?

a subset of the designated population that is observed by the researcher

what are types of categorical data?

nominal

dichotomous

ordinal

what are types of continuous data?

interval

ratio

continuous and categorical data are regarding _________ data

quantitative (numbers)

what are categorical variables?

variables used to represent a quality or quantity that classifies a person or object into a specific category

what are discrete variables?

variables that can only take on certain values along a specified range (usually whole units)

what are qualitative variables?

categorical variables

what are nominal variables?

a variable that consists of two or more mutually exclusive categories that are assigned numerically

what is dichotomous/binary data?

there are only two possible values ex: placebo v. experimental drug

what are ordinal variables?

observations that are ranked in terms of size/severity based off the operational defined variable- numbers that reflect differences in magnitude

what are continuous variables?

variables that can take on any value along a continuum within a defined range

how are continuous variables limited?

based on the precision of the measuring instrument

what are interval variables?

they are like ordinal data, the intervals between ranks are know and are equal

in interval variables there is no….

meaningful zero point

what is an example of an interval variable?

temperature

what are ratio variables?

variables in an interval scale that have a meaningful zero point

the first table presented in a research paper that was measuring something is usually…

a statistical table