ordinal scale

a sequence of numbers that do not indicate magnitude or a true zero point but rather reflect a rank ordering on the attribute being measured. For example, an ordinal scale for the performance of a specific group of people on a particular test might use the number 1 to indicate the person who obtained the highest score, the number 2 to indicate the person who obtained the next highest score, and so on. It is important to note that an ordinal scale does not provide any information about the degree of difference between adjacent ranks (e.g., it is not clear what the actual point difference is between the rank 1 and 2 scores). Compare interval scale; nominal scale; ratio scale.

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Psychology term of the day

March 9th 2025

true experiment

a study in which participants are assigned at random to two or more experimentally manipulated treatment conditions or to a treatment group and a control group. This type of experiment is in contrast to quasi-experimental designs, such as natural experiments and field experiments.