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Project One Milestone
dejah brown
Southern New Hampshire University
PSY 260: Statistical Applications for the Behavioral and Social Sciences
christine schilling-louzek
November 6, 2025
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Project One Milestone
Variable Scales of
Measurement
Measures of
Central
Tendency
Measures of
Variability
Graphic
Depictions
Class Nominal Mean Standard
Deviation /
Variance
Histogram
Empathy1 Nominal Mean Standard
Deviation /
Variance
Histogram
Empathy2 Interval-Ratio Median None Histogram
Empathy3 Nominal Mode Range /
Interquartile
Range
Histogram
Empathy4 Ordinal Median Range /
Interquartile
Range
Histogram
Empathy5 Nominal Mean Standard
Deviation /
Variance
Histogram
Empathy6 Nominal Mean None Bar/Pie
Empathy7 Ordinal Mode Standard
Deviation /
Variance
Bar/Pie
Empathy
Average
Interval-Ratio Median Range /
Interquartile
Range
Histogram
Describe how these concepts intersect and why scales of measurement influence decisions
about statistics and graphics. The length of your description must be about 4 to 7 sentences.
The dataset includes an ID, year, class, and multiple empathy scores (empathy1 through
empathy7, along with some reversed scores indicated by "_r"). The empathy scores and
their averages appear to be measured on an interval or ordinal scale; however, without
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knowing the exact questionnaire used for empathy measurement, it's difficult to
ascertain the precise scale of measurement. The level of measurement (nominal,
ordinal, interval, ratio) dictates which statistical analyses are appropriate, thereby
influencing the type of graphics that can be employed effectively. For instance, one
would use different statistical measures for nominal data (e.g., mode, chi-square) versus
ratio data (e.g., mean, standard deviation, t-tests). Graphics must also align with the
data's scale; bar charts might display frequencies of nominal data, while scatter plots are
more suitable for interval or ratio data, thereby demonstrating how decisions of
statistics and graphics are influenced by the level of measurement. The choice of
measurement scales intersects with these analytic decisions to ensure accurate and
meaningful data interpretation and presentation.
