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spssordinal-indicator

can SPSS regard ordinal measures as producing continuous data?

In SPSS, when defining the measure of a variable, the usual options are "Scale", "Ordinal", and "Nominal" (see image).

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However, when using actual dialog boxes to do analyses, SPSS will often ask us to describe whether the data are "Continuous" or "Categorical". E.g., I was watching this video by James Gaskin (a great YouTube teacher by the way), and saw this dialog box (image below).

enter image description here

My Question: In the second image, you can see that the narrator put some "Ordinal" variables in the "Continuous" box. Is it okay to do that? How come?

Solution

  • For most procedures, the treatment of a variable is determined by how you use it. The measurement level is just a reminder, so you can treat a variable however it makes sense.

    There are some procedures that automatically determine how to treat a variable based on the measurement level, including CTABLES, the Chart Builder, and TREE, but you can change the level temporarily in the dialog box or in syntax or change it persistently via VARIABLE LEVEL or in the Data Editor. Also, most of the statistical extension commands use the declared measurement level to determine whether a variable is continuous or a factor.