Quantitative Methods and the Nominal Scale - Essay Example

?3. The nominal scale is the simplest type of scale. The numbers or letters are just used for the purpose of identification only. A common example isthe coding of males as 1 and females as 2. The ordinal scale arranges the objects according to their magnitude. However, we cannot say anything about the difference between two measurements on the scale. An example can be shoe size. The higher the shoe number the bigger the shoe size. But we cannot say that a shoe of size 8 is twice as big as a shoe of size 4. In the interval scale the difference between two measurements has a meaning. The distances between each internal on the scale is equal. The location of zero is arbitrary in an interval scale. For example, the difference between 80 degree and 70 degree on a Fahrenheit scale is the same as the difference between 50 degree and 40 degree. But we cannot say that 80 degree is twice as hot as 40 degree because the zero does not represent the lack of temperature but a relative point on the Fahrenheit scale. In ratio scale there are absolute quantities and it possesses an absolute zero. An absolute zero represents an absence of an attribute. We use a ratio scale when measuring weight. If we hear zero kilograms of wheat, then it means there is no wheat. 4. Of the 50 respondents 13(26%) have said that they watch the national network news at 5:30 pm on Channel 5. 9(18%) respondents see it on Channel 3, 21(42%) see it on Channel 8 and 7(14%) were undecided. 9(18%) respondents see the local news on Channel 3, 25(50%) see on Channel 8, 11(22%) see on Channel 5 and 5(10%) are undecided. 24(48%) respondents rated the local news station they watched as good. 12(24%) respondents rated it as very good and 6(12%) said that it was excellent. Only 3(6%) rated it as poor. 17(34%) respondents rated the sports coverage as good, 16(32%) rated as very good and 10(20%) as excellent. Only 5(10%) rated it as poor. 35(70%) respondents rated the weather report as good or above. Only 7(14%) were not satisfied with it. 41(82%) respondents rated the anchor newscaster as good or above. Only 1(2%) did not like the anchor newscaster. 41(82%) respondents rated the sportscaster as good or above. Only 4(8%) rated the sportscaster as poor. 43(86%) respondents rated the overall news performance as good or above. 33(66%) respondents say that the network news station is not an influence regarding which local news they watch. The shape of the frequency distribution of the variable X14 is trimodal. It has three modes. It can also be said that it is J-shaped because the highest values are at the extreme left. The frequency distribution of variable X15 is such that it has multiple modes. The shape of variable X17 is bimodal. The frequency distribution of variable X18 and X19 is approximately normal (bell-shaped). Recommendations The average age of the household head in Middletown is 44 years, and most of the household heads are in the range of 24-40 years. So Channel 5 should concentrate on targeting middle age men aged 25-45 so that they gain maximum viewership. Middle aged people usually are interested in sports and local news so Channel 5 should concentrate on showing more sporting events and give up to date local news. Channel 5 should also concentrate on those people who have rated local news, sports coverage and weather updates poorly. Channel 5 should also show sports and local news at prime time as this is the time when the maximum number of people is watching television. On average the people have been living in this state for 26.78 years. So they may be very interested in the local news. It is important that Channel 5 focuses on the local news. People in the area do not watch a lot of TV. They watch an average of 12.08 hours per week which makes it 1.72 hours per day. So Channel 5 needs to find out when the people watch TV the most and then target that spot. 5. Mean, median and mode are the three most important measures of the central tendency. They indicate where the center or the most typical value of the data set lies. The mean is simply the average of the data set. The median is the value that divides the top 50% of the data set from the bottom 50% of the data set. The mode is the most frequently occurring value in the data set. It is a value whose frequency of occurrence is greater than 1 and is as large as or larger than the frequency of occurrence of any other value in the data set. Standard deviation is one of the most important measures of dispersion. It measures the variation in the data set by indicating how far the values are from the mean on average. X 10: 44% of the household heads are male and 56% are females. X 11: 90% of the house hold heads are married, 6 % are single and 2% are divorced. X 12:  On average 1.38 people living in a particular household are employed. The median for people living in a household who are employed is 1. The standard deviation for people living in a household who are employed is 0.6. X 14:  On average people have lived for 8.68 years at the particular residence. The median for people living at the particular residence is 6.5 years. The standard deviation for people living at a part the particular residence is 8.01 years. X 15:  On average people have lived for 26.78 years in a particular state. The median for people living in Middletown is 21.5 years. The standard deviation for people living in Middletown is 18.43 years. X 17:  The average age of the head of the household is 44.06 years. The median age for the head of the household is 42.5 years. The standard deviation age for the head of the household is 15.51 years. X 18:  The average household income is $24804.08. The median income is $24000.00. The standard deviation is $4840.97. X 19:  A television on average is turned on for 12.08 hours per week in a household. The median hours are 12.00 hours per week. The standard deviation is 4.36 hours per week. Bibliography Weiss, Niel A. Introductory Statistics. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1995. Read More