Question

Setting up values in SPSS - hours spent at work - days spent at work Are these considered ordinal or scale variables? Why?

Answer 1

The types of variables are:

Nominal : Colors i.e, Red, Green, Blue, etc. there cannot be any order or quantity with these assigned.

Ordinal : Grades i.e, A, B, C, D, etc there is an order i.e, A>B>C>D and so on

Interval : Any quantity e.g., Temperature their absolute differences are meaningful but ratios are not mostly discrete.

Ratio : Heights (in cm) and Weights(in pounds) etc because here, we differences as well as ratios (BMI) are meaningful.

So, hours spent at work will be discrete numbers and would be quantity.

E.g., say hours are : 9,10,8,7,9

Then obviously 10>9>8>7 but not only that their differences 10-9 and so on are also meaningful

So, it is not ordinal but scale variable

Similarly, days spent at work will be scale variable and not just ordinal.

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