SOCIAL RESEARCH SKILLS

Assessment 2- Social Research Skills

Assessment 2- Social Research Skills

1. Level of Measurement

Information collected during the survey is classified according to the level of measurement. Different levels of measurement data containing different amounts of information, no matter what the subject of the measurement. How to measure the level of the lowest growing (nominal level) to the highest (ratio level), increasing the amount of information they contain data, and mathematical operations that can be performed on that data. The level of measurement includes the following:

Interval;

Ordinal;

Nominal;

Ratio.

Interval Level of Measurement

Characteristics of interval scales determine what is more or less, and the differences between different units of the scale are the same in every part of the scale and in accordance with the measured trait. These scales have absolute zero. If 0 is set on these scales, it is arbitrary (Held, Michael & Hofmann, 2005).

An example of interval scale, the results of the psychological tests, although some scholars believe it more appropriate psychological test data obtained treated as ordinal.

The statistical techniques which can be used in interval scale include the following:

Arithmetic mean,

Standard deviation,

z-value and

Correlation coefficient, including partial and multivariate correlation.

Ordinal Level of Measurement

Ordinal scale determined by the higher or lowers, but the differences between different units of scale are not equal. In this way, ordinal scale collects the following information:

Ranks,

Attainments and others.

Statistical techniques which can be applied on these variables include:

Mode,

Correlation coefficient.

The Nominal Level of Measurement

Data at the nominal level of measurement is called the nominal or categorical (Lin, Hsu-Pin & Zhang, 1997). Categorical data recorded quality or characteristic of a person, such as:

eye colour,

affiliation gender, nationality or political party,

opinion on an issue and so on.

Each number is obtained by measuring at this level, there is no real numerical sense, as the same types of cases means the same number (Littell, Henry & Ammerman, 1998). This means that instead of the objects, properties, groups assigned a number, for example:

The number of cars,

Number of athletes and others.

Categorical data are organized in groups of individuals, and these data are commonly presented as the number and / or percentage or number of people who belong to certain groups (Protsman & Carlson, 2008).

For nominal data, statistical techniques which are allowed, as follows:

Mode,

Proportions,

?2 test,

Correlation coefficient.

Ratio Level of Measurement

The level of measurement that is ratio scale has all the features of an interval scale and is an absolute 0. This means that the numbers refer to the same relationship to the measured phenomenon (Rand & Young, 1999). Measurements in physics are the ratio scale, such as length, weight, resistance, etc.

2. Descriptive Statistics

What is the total number of respondents?

My sample consisted of 3297 cases

Case Processing Summary

Cases

Valid

Missing

Total

N

Percent

N

Percent

N

Percent

Serial Number :Q1

3297

100 %

0

.0 %

3297

100 %

The above table indicating that the total numbers of respondents are 3297 and all the participants responded for the given concern.



What is the mean age of the sample?

Descriptive

Statistic

Std. Error

Person 1 age last birthday :Q49

Mean

51.02

.313

95 % CI for Mean

Lower Bound

50.41

Upper Bound

51.64

5 % Trimmed Mean

50.82

Median

50.00

Variance

321.559

Standard Deviation

17.932

Minimum

18

Maximum

95

Range

77

Interquartile Range

28

Skewness

.133

.043

Kurtosis

-.865

.085

The descriptive statistics are indicating that the mean age of the participants ...