Levels of Measurement

• Nominal level data - discrete data

  • Data in the form of named categories
  • For example, it is possible to count the amount of boys and girls in a year group: male and female are the categories and you take a count of how many in each group
  • Other examples may include things such as hair colour
• Ordinal level data - discrete data

  • Data that is ordered/ranked, e.g. highest to lowest
  • Does not have to have equal/fixed intervals
  • Based on subjective opinions
  • For example, rate how much you enjoy psychology on a scale of 1-10
• Interval level data - continuous data

  • Data is a standardised/universal/official measurement
  • Based on objective measures, e.g. time in seconds, heart rate in BPM
• Discrete data means separate categories
• Continuous data means numbers that follow on from each other