What distinguishes ordinal variables from nominal ones?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Question restatement: What distinguishes ordinal variables from nominal ones?

Option 1: They include decimal points. This is not a defining feature of ordinal variables; including decimal points is about the measurement scale (continuous vs categorical) and is not what makes a variable ordinal. Decimal points pertain more to measurement precision, not the core property of order.

Option 2: They imply order or ranking. This is the key distinguishing trait: ordinal variables convey a meaningful sequence (e.g., Likert scale levels like agree, neutral, disagree; education levels like high school, bachelor’s, master’s). The order matters, but the exact differences between adjacent levels are not necessarily equal.

Option 3: They are not used in surveys. This is false because both nominal and ordinal variables are commonly used in surveys to capture categorical responses. The statement mischaracterizes their usage.

Option 4: Ordinal variables are always numeric. This is incorrect because ordinal data can be categorical with a natural order that is not numeric (e.g., grade levels like A, B, C or rankings like first, second, third). Not all ordinal data are numbers, and even when numbers appear, they don’t always represent equal intervals.

Summary: Option 2 correctly captures the defining feature of ordinal variables—an inherent order or ranking—while the other options describe characteristics that do not apply or are misleading about ordinal data.

What distinguishes ordinal variables from nominal ones?单项选择题

类似问题

How many levels of exercise were measured in the survey?

Gender (i.e. male or female) is a type of ________________________ variable.

What type of variable is ‘gender?’

Which of the following is a categorical variable?

What kind of variables would you cross-tabulate:

Determine if the following statement is True or False or Can’t Tell. A correlation coefficient would be helpful to study the independence of gender and education level. True

Refer to Table 1, where information about individuals’ hourly wage, biological gender, and marital status has been recorded. Which of the following is correct about the second individual for whom we have recorded information? Table 1 Wage Male Married 20.00 1 1 24.00 0 1 22.00 1 0

更多留学生实用工具

智能学习助手

风格化写作助手

论文查重助手

文献引用助手

课堂转译助手

课堂笔记助手

Quiz搜索助手

学校历年真题

智能刷题助手

智能匹配练习

希望你的学习变得更简单