Welcome to Module Two

We are building our knowledge of quantitative research by exploring the concept of levels of measurement this week. Levels of measurement refers to the way in which a variable is operationalized. Another way to say this is that a variable’s level of measurement tells us how that variable’s data is organized. For example, if I want to know someone’s education level, I could ask them to tell me how many years they have been in school, or I could ask them to tell me the highest degree they have earned. Both of these variables would be ways to measure education, but they would be different levels of measurement. You will learn more about why this is the case (and why this is important) in this module.

Upon completion of this module, students will be able to:

Define the four levels of measurement.
Provide examples of appropriate variables for each level of measurement.
Identify appropriate levels of measurement for variables in SPSS.