Some aspects of qualitative data analysis (Q1310604)

Real-valued functions of one or several qualitative random variables are characterized which are comparable with the degree of measurement up to which the random variables of interest are known. Examples of the random variables under consideration are homogeneity and heterogeneity functions of clusters as well as similarity and dissimilarity coefficients. Related functions of the just mentioned random variables can be, e.g., expectations, goodness criteria and stress measures in multidimensional scaling. In accordance with the circumstance that the degree of measurement is represented by some group, mainly three groups reflecting nominal, ordinal and rational scaling are studied.