Question

Researchers often wish to measure consumers' satisfaction toward certain products and might ask consumers to specify their feelings as either "very dissatisfied", "somewhat dissatisfied", "somewhat satisfied", or "very satisfied". this is an example of what level of data?

Answer 1

The answer is ordinal data or scales. The ordinal type allows for rank order  by which data can be sorted, but still does not allow for relative degree of difference between them. The items in this scale are ordered, ranging from least to most satisfied. This is what differentiates ordinal from nominal scales. Unlike nominal scales, ordinal scales permit comparisons of the degree to which two subjects have the dependent variable. For instance, our satisfaction ordering makes it expressive to state that one person is more satisfied than another with their microwave ovens. Such statement replicates the first person's use of a verbal label that comes later in the list than the label chosen by the second person.