Nominal scale: Assigns numbers to categories without any inherent order or meaning. Used for classification and labeling.
Ordinal scale: Assigns numbers to categories with an inherent order, but the intervals between numbers are not necessarily equal. Used for ranking and ordering.
Interval scale: Assigns numbers to categories with an inherent order and equal intervals between numbers. Has a meaningful zero point, but not a true zero. Used for measuring continuous variables.
Ratio scale: Assigns numbers to categories with an inherent order, equal intervals between numbers, and a true zero point. Used for measuring exact quantities.
Other specialized scales:
- Logarithmic scale: Used for representing data that varies over several orders of magnitude. - Likert scale: Used for measuring attitudes or opinions on a scale with several response options. - Thurstone scale: Used for measuring attitudes or opinions by assigning numbers to statements that reflect different levels of agreement or disagreement. - Guttman scale: Used for measuring attitudes or opinions by creating a series of items that progressively reflect a higher level of agreement or disagreement. - Semantic differential scale: Used for measuring attitudes or opinions by having respondents rate concepts on a series of bipolar scales. - Multidimensional scaling (MDS): Used for representing relationships among objects or concepts in a multidimensional space.