Preference, type of scale

In economics and logic, the preference is the ordering of alternatives based on their relative utility, a
process which results in an optimal "choice" (whether real or theoretical).
The character of the individual preferences is determined by taste factors, independent of
considerations of prices, and availability of goods.
Measuring means assigning numbers to objects or events in a systematic way. The concepts differ
significantly to the ease with which they can be measured.
If the property is concrete and directly observable, it is virtually known to all respondents and
usually can be measured quite easily.
An example is the weight, measured understandable concept and also in daily life. Other concepts,
in particular attitudes, such as authoritarianism, can be much more difficult to measure, given that
they are not directly observable.
There are four measurement scales (or types of data): Nominal, Ordinal, Interval and Ratio.
These are simply ways to categorize different types of variables.
This proposal of a classification of measurement level to four levels is made by Stanley Stevens in
1946.

● Nominal scale

Any classification operation consists in assigning cases to groups or categories, without attributing
to them any kind of quantitative information and no order of criterion.
Basically, all that is required of a nominal variable is that there are at least two categories
(otherwise it is not a variable), and that the categories are distinct, mutually exclusive and
exhaustive, that each case must fall into one category, and that there is an appropriate category for
each case we are classifying.
Nominal scales are used for labeling variables, without any quantitative value. “Nominal” scales
could simply be called “labels.” Notice that all of these scales are mutually exclusive and none of
them have any numerical significance.

Below, an example:

• What is your gender? Or What is your favourite colour?

1. Male 1. red
2. Female 2. yellow

● Ordinal scale

In the Ordinal scale in the various categories are not all on the same plane, but are hierarchically
ordered according to the value they have with respect to the properties even if considered among the
ordered categories are not necessarily equal distances.
The Ordinal scale level we can apply the sorting properties between categories, or we can say that,
compared to the measured characteristic, a person who has a position in the ranking r, has a higher
value than a person in r -1 place , and that the latter has a higher value with respect to a person in r-
2 position. In this scale we are not able to quantify the distance between the king value the r-1
value, and we are unable to say whether between King r-1 on the one hand, and R-1 and R-2 on the
other there it is the same distance.
Furthermore the Ordinal scales are typically measures of non-numeric concepts like satisfaction,
happiness, discomfort, etc.
This type of scale is easy to remember because it is sound like a order, indeed in this scale the order
is the most important thing.

Below, an example:

• How satisfied are you with your service?

1. Very unsatisfied
2. Somewhat unsatisfied
3. Neutral
4 Somewhat satisfied
5. Very satisfied

● Interval scale:

Interval scales are numeric scales in cui we know not only the order, but Also the exact differences
between the values.
Using as an example the age, we can define each person based on the number of years lived.
So the difference between the level of Ordinal scale and Interval consists in the fact that with a scale
at intervals we know not only if, on the basis of that variable, a person is placed higher up than to
another, but also "how many units of measurement higher "ranks.
Another example of an Interval scale is Celsius temperature because the difference between each
value is the same.
In fact, the difference between 50 and 40 degrees is a measurable 10 degrees, as is the difference
between 90 and 80 degrees.
The Interval scale has not an absolute zero and is not possible to tell if a value both in relation to
multiple or ratio with respect to another.

● Ratio scale:

The rational scale is the highest level and possesses the characteristic of having absolute zero.
In other words, the measurable variables with this type of measurement may be absent entirely and
we have tools are able to detect its absence.
They are rational measures of those variables such as age, height, the time elapsed since the
beginning of the disturbances, and so on; exceptional are the rational variables in psychiatry and
human sciences in general.
For example the balance provides even two examples of Ratio Scales: height and weight.

References:
https://cirt.gcu.edu
http://simon.cs.vt.edu
https://books.google.it
http://www.graphpad.com

Simona Ippoliti
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