NOMINAL, ORDINAL, INTERVAL, AND RATIO TYPOLOGIES ARE MISLEADING

The psychophysicist S. S. Stevens developed a measurement scale typology that has dominated social statistics methodology for almost 50 years. During this period, it has generated considerable controversy among statisticians. Recently, there has been a renaissance in the use of Stevens's scale typology for guiding the design of statistical computer packages. The current use of Stevens's terminology fails to deal with the classical criticisms at the time it was proposed and ignores important developments in data analysis over the last several decades.