How does an ordinal categorical variable works.? - Answers

An ordinal categorical variable is often used in questions for which the responses can be put into some kind of natural order but where the difference between categories is not the same. One example may be where the respondent is asked to class statements as "disagree strongly", "disagree", "neither disagree nor agree", "agree", and "agree strongly". There is a natural progression in the response but the difference between "disagree strongly" and "neither ... " [2 steps] may not be the same as that between "disagree" and "agree" [also 2 steps].The results of any analyses which attaches numerical value to the answers for processing is sensitive to the coding system used. The results with the answers coded as {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} will be quite different to those coded {1, 4, 10, 20, 25}.