Path Analysis and Ordinal Data

While path analysis has great advantages for bridging the gap between sociological theory and statistical analysis, a major obstacle is the requirement that interval scales be assumed for the data. This problem is attacked, first by investigating what theoretically can go wrong when interval scales are assumed, second by presenting a technique (the use of dummy variables) for checking on the results of assuming equal intervals, and finally by applying this technique to one set of empirical data. The conclusion is that the empirical dangers of assuming equal intervals are not great. In addition to checking on this, the dummy-variable technique can otentially lead to improvements in sociological measurement.