
# 1.4: Scales of Measurement

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Like other kinds of data, the information we collect about ties between actors can be measured (i.e. we can assign scores to our observations) at different "levels of measurement." The different levels of measurement are important because they limit the kinds of questions that can be examined by the researcher. Scales of measurement are also important because different kinds of scales have different mathematical properties, and call for different algorithms in describing patterns and testing inferences about them.

It is conventional to distinguish nominal, ordinal, and interval levels of measurement (the ratio level can, for all practical purposes, be grouped with interval). It is useful, however, to further divide nominal measurement into binary and multi-category variations; it is also useful to distinguish between full-rank ordinal measures and grouped ordinal measures. We will briefly describe all of these variations, and provide examples of how they are commonly applied in social network studies.

Binary measures of relations: By far the most common approach to scaling (assigning numbers to) relations is to simply distinguish between relations being absent (coded zero), and ties being present (coded one). If we ask respondents in a survey to tell us "which other people on this list do you like?" we are doing binary measurement. Each person from the list that is selected is coded one. Those who are not selected are coded zero.

Much of the development of graph theory in mathematics, and many of the algorithms for measuring properties of actors and networks have been developed for binary data. Binary data is so widely used in network analysis that it is not unusual to see data that are measured at a "higher" level transformed into binary scores before analysis proceeds. To do this, one simply selects some "cut point" and re-scores cases as below the cut-point (zero) or above it (one). Dichotomizing data in this way is throwing away information. The analyst needs to consider what is relevant (i.e. what is the theory about? is it about the presence and pattern of ties, or about the strengths of ties?), and what algorithms are to be applied in deciding whether it is reasonable to recode the data. Very often, the additional power and simplicity of analysis of binary data is "worth" the cost in information lost.

Multiple-category nominal measures of relations: In collecting data we might ask our respondents to look at a list of other people and tell us: "for each person on this list, select the category that describes your relationship with them the best: friend, lover, business relationship, kin, or no relationship." We might score each person on the list as having a relationship of type "1" type "2" etc. This kind of a scale is nominal or qualitative -- each person's relationship to the subject is coded by its type, rather than its strength. Unlike the binary nominal (true-false) data, the multiple category nominal measure is multiple choice.

The most common approach to analyzing multiple-category nominal measures is to use it to create a series of binary measures. That is, we might take the data arising from the question described above and create separate sets of scores for friendship ties, for lover ties, for kin ties, etc. This is very similar to "dummy coding" as a way of handling multiple choice types of measures in statistical analysis. In examining the resulting data, however, one must remember that each node was allowed to have a tie in at most one of the resulting networks. That is, a person can be a friendship tie or a lover tie -- but not both -- as a result of the way we asked the question. In examining the resulting networks, densities may be artificially low, and there will be an inherent negative correlation among the matrices.

This sort of multiple choice data can also be "binarized." That is, we can ignore what kind of tie is reported, and simply code whether a tie exists for a dyad, or not. This may be fine for some analyses -- but it does waste information. One might also wish to regard the types of ties as reflecting some underlying continuous dimension (for example, emotional intensity). The types of ties can then be scaled into a single grouped ordinal measure of tie strength. The scaling, of course, reflects the predispositions of the analyst -- not the reports of the respondents.

Grouped ordinal measures of relations: One of the earliest traditions in the study of social networks asked respondents to rate each of a set of others as "liked" "disliked" or "neutral." The result is a grouped ordinal scale (i.e., there can be more than one "liked" person, and the categories reflect an underlying rank order of intensity). Usually, this kind of three point scale was coded -1, 0, and +1 to reflect negative liking, indifference, and positive liking. When scored this way, the pluses and minuses make it fairly easy to write algorithms that will count and describe various network properties (e.g. the structural balance of the graph).

Grouped ordinal measures can be used to reflect a number of different quantitative aspects of relations. Network analysts are often concerned with describing the "strength" of ties. But, "strength" may mean (some or all of) a variety of things. One dimension is the frequency of interaction -- do actors have contact daily, weekly, monthly, etc. Another dimension is "intensity," which usually reflects the degree of emotional arousal associated with the relationship (e.g. kin ties may be infrequent, but carry a high "emotional charge" because of the highly ritualized and institutionalized expectations). Ties may be said to be stronger if they involve many different contexts or types of ties. Summing nominal data about the presence or absence of multiple types of ties gives rise to an ordinal (actually, interval) scale of one dimension of tie strength. Ties are also said to be stronger to the extent that they are reciprocated. Normally we would assess reciprocity by asking each actor in a dyad to report their feelings about the other. However, one might also ask each actor for their perceptions of the degree of reciprocity in a relation: Would you say that neither of you like each other very much, that you like X more than X likes you, that X likes you more than you like X, or that you both like each other about equally?

Ordinal scales of measurement contain more information than nominal. That is, the scores reflect finer gradations of tie strength than the simple binary "presence or absence." This would seem to be a good thing, yet it is frequently difficult to take advantage of ordinal data. The most commonly used algorithms for the analysis of social networks have been designed for binary data. Many have been adapted to continuous data -- but for interval, rather than ordinal scales of measurement. Ordinal data, consequently, are often binarized by choosing some cut-point and re-scoring. Alternatively, ordinal data are sometimes treated as though they really were interval. The former strategy has some risks, in that choices of cut-points can be consequential; the latter strategy has some risks, in that the intervals separating points on an ordinal scale may be very heterogeneous.

Full-rank ordinal measures of relations: Sometimes it is possible to score the strength of all of the relations of an actor in a rank order from strongest to weakest. For example, I could ask each respondent to write a "1" next to the name of the person in the class that you like the most, a "2" next to the name of the person you like next most, etc. The kind of scale that would result from this would be a "full rank order scale." Such scales reflect differences in degree of intensity, but not necessarily equal differences -- that is, the difference between my first and second choices is not necessarily the same as the difference between my second and third choices. Each relation, however, has a unique score (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.).

Full rank ordinal measures are somewhat uncommon in the social networks research literature, as they are in most other traditions. Consequently, there are relatively few methods, definitions, and algorithms that take specific and full advantage of the information in such scales. Most commonly, full rank ordinal measures are treated as if they were interval. There is probably somewhat less risk in treating fully rank ordered measures (compared to grouped ordinal measures) as though they were interval, though the assumption is still a risky one. Of course, it is also possible to group the rank order scores into groups (i.e. produce a grouped ordinal scale) or dichotomize the data (e.g. the top three choices might be treated as ties, the remainder as non-ties). In combining information on multiple types of ties, it is frequently necessary to simplify full rank order scales. But, if we have a number of full rank order scales that we may wish to combine to form a scale (i.e. rankings of people's likings of other in the group, frequency of interaction, etc.), the sum of such scales into an index is plausibly treated as a truly interval measure.

Interval measures of relations: The most "advanced" level of measurement allows us to discriminate among the relations reported in ways that allow us to validly state that, for example, "this tie is twice as strong as that tie." Ties are rated on scales in which the difference between a "1" and a "2" reflects the same amount of real difference as that between "23" and "24."

True interval level measures of the strength of many kinds of relationships are fairly easy to construct, with a little imagination and persistence. Asking respondents to report the details of the frequency or intensity of ties by survey or interview methods, however, can be rather unreliable -- particularly if the relationships being tracked are not highly salient and infrequent. Rather than asking whether two people communicate, one could count the number of email, phone, and inter-office mail deliveries between them. Rather than asking whether two nations trade with one another, look at statistics on balances of payments. In many cases, it is possible to construct interval level measures of relationship strength by using artifacts (e.g. statistics collected for other purposes) or observation.

Continuous measures of the strengths of relationships allow the application of a wider range of mathematical and statistical tools to the exploration and analysis of the data. Many of the algorithms that have been developed by social network analysts, originally for binary data, have been extended to take advantage of the information available in full interval measures. Whenever possible, connections should be measured at the interval level -- as we can always move to a less refined approach later; if data are collected at the nominal level, it is much more difficult to move to a more refined level.

Even though it is a good idea to measure relationship intensity at the most refined level possible, most network analysis does not operate at this level. The most powerful insights of network analysis, and many of the mathematical and graphical tools used by network analysts were developed for simple graphs (i.e. binary, undirected). Many characterizations of the embeddedness of actors in their networks, and of the networks themselves are most commonly thought of in discrete terms in the research literature. As a result, it is often desirable to reduce even interval data to the binary level by choosing a cutting -point, and coding tie strength above that point as "1" and below that point as "0." Unfortunately, there is no single "correct" way to choose a cut-point. Theory and the purposes of the analysis provide the best guidance. Sometimes examining the data can help (maybe the distribution of tie strengths really is discretely bi-modal, and displays a clear cut point; maybe the distribution is highly skewed and the main feature is a distinction between no tie and any tie). When a cut-point is chosen, it is wise to also consider alternative values that are somewhat higher and lower, and repeat the analyses with different cut-points to see if the substance of the results is affected. This can be very tedious, but it is very necessary. Otherwise, one may be fooled into thinking that a real pattern has been found, when we have only observed the consequences of where we decided to put our cut-point.