A categorical variable consists of a set of nonoverlapping categories. Categorical data are counts for those categories. The measurement scale of a categorical variable is ordinal if the categories exhibit a natural ordering, such as opinion variables with categories from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.” The measurement scale is nominal if there is no inherent ordering. The types of possible analysis for categorical data depend on the measurement scale.

Types of Analysis

When the subjects measured are cross-classified on two or more categorical variables, the table of counts for the various combinations of categories is a contingency table. The information in a contingency table can be summarized and further analyzed through appropriate measures of association and models as discussed below. These measures and models differentiate according to ...

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