Metrics for Analysis, Selection of

Generally speaking, a study or field of study is considered scientific to the degree it makes greater use of mathematics. Mathematics is a logical, rule-governed system and models real-world events and objects. It is imperative that one uses mathematics appropriately, and an important consideration when considering the use of mathematics is the type of measures used. Statistics are one area of mathematical operations that are used to both describe a group of observations and to also infer to the larger population from which a sample of observations was drawn.

A scale or measure used has to do with the assignment of numerals to events or objects. Very often the numeral assigned to a given object is itself meaningless. For example, one might code males as “1” ...