Introduction to Probability Theory and Heath Statistics

Introduction to Probability Theory and Heath Statistics
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PART A
Provide a brief explanation where indicated./> A researcher studying lifespan categorizes individuals into single, married, divorced, or widowed. What type of variable measurement is this?
This is a nominal scale of measurement on the marital status of people categorized into groups (Munro, 2005). This is because the data is non-overlapping as is the case of nominal scales where there is mutual exclusivity. All the observations on marital status fall into any of the categories, and all the observations in each category must be the same with other observations in the same category. Furthermore, no ranking or order can be associated with data on the categories.
A cognitive scientist places her subjects into categories based on how anxious they tell her that they are feeling: “not anxious”, “mildly anxious”, “moderately anxious” and “severely anxious”, and she uses the numbers 0, 1, 2 and 3 to label categories where lower numbers indicate less anxiety. What type of variable measurement is this? Are the categories mutually exclusive? -
This is an ordinal level of measurement as the numbers give an order to the level of anxiety experienced by the participants (Munro, 2005). The four categories are all inclusive and mutually exclusive. As one moves from 0 to 4, the level of anxiety increases, and hence, the variables are ordered, but the difference between two categories is not constant. In other words, there is an explicit relationship among the categories from feeling’ “not anxious” to “severely anxious”
A Physician diagnoses the presence or absence of disease (i.e. yes or no). What type of variable measurement is this?-
This is a nominal level variable that is dichotomous, as the variables are classified based on whether one has a disease or not. The cases are all covered under the two categories, and they are mutually exclusive, as a case can only belong to any one of the two groups. There are also no orders or ranking on the data.
A person weighing 200 lbs. is considered to be twice as heavy as a person weighing 100 lbs. In this case, what type of measurement is body weight?
This is ratio level measurement as it is possible to get a ratio variable unlike interval measurement which has no true zero (Munro, 2005). The ratio of the weight between the two persons is 2 to 1, as the heavier person is twice heavy than the light individual. This classification shares characteristics of the other three levels of measurement. There can be rank orders from the heaviest (ordinal scale), there are interval scales and marking weight.
A nurse takes measurements of body temperature on patients and reports themin units of degrees Fahrenheit as part of a study. What type of variable measurement is this?
Fahrenheit temperature is an example of interval level of measurement, as it is possible to rank orders with equal intervals, but the measure has no absolute zero point (Munro, 2005). One cannot say that there is no temperature, but rather there is a freezing point on the Fahrenheit scale. In any case, there is a meaningful difference in each successive 1°F temperature change
Patients rate their experience in the emergency room on a five point scale from poor to excellent (1 = very poor, 2 = not very good, 3 = neither good nor bad, 4= quite good, and 5 = excellent). What type of variable measurement is this? Is the difference between a 1 and a 2 necessarily the same as the difference between a 3 and a 4? Explain briefly. 
Rating experiences is part of ordinal level of measurement, meaning that a higher ranking is related to better experience than the lower ranking. In any case the rating scale does not have equal intervals ruling out this as the rating as an interval scale. Data is ordered and placed in ranks, but there is no defined difference between ranks. There is no precise measurement in scale meaning that the difference between 1 and 2 is not necessarily the same as that between 3 and 4.
PART 2
Part I (A-F), and raise a relevant question of your own that could be answered by a statistician. Then without answering your own question, explain how a pattern could be studied or a useful prediction made based on data that are to be collected.
“A person weighing 200 lbs. is considered to be twice as heavy as a person weighing 100 lbs. In this case, what type of measurement is body weight.”- In such a case, a statistician would want to unders...