An Informational Indicator for Categorical Variables of a Survey. Research Note Cover Image

Un indicator informațional pentru variabilele categoriale ale unei anchete. Notă de cercetare
An Informational Indicator for Categorical Variables of a Survey. Research Note

Author(s): Gabriel Sticlaru
Subject(s): Social Sciences
Published by: Institutul de cercetare a Calității Vieții (ICCV)
Keywords: Scales of measurement; Informational Entropy and Energy; Likert Scale

Summary/Abstract: The statistical procedures used for data processing have to be considerate depending on measurement variables level: nominal, ordinal, interval or ratio type. Here are presented some examples for ordinal variables, where calculated mean is misleading and gives a wrong interpretation. For the categorical variables, we propose an indicator resulted from the informational entropy, as a measure of the responses distribution in a survey. Calculations are made for a Likert scale, survey data from 1991 to 2010. The indicator allows us to make a global characterization of the distributions, items ranking, dynamic comparisons and patterns identification.

  • Issue Year: 14/2016
  • Issue No: 02+03
  • Page Range: 73-78
  • Page Count: 6
  • Language: Romanian
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