It is not always clearly stated in articles and texts whether cross-tablulation can be used with ordinal data. Can one use cross-tabulations to examine whether there is a correlation between motivation and students' academic performance in using the Motivational Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ)?
Dear Debra, in general cross tabulation can certainly be used with ordinal variables but it is linked to the chi squared test of association rather than the Spearman bivariate test of correlation. Association is a weaker form of relationship than correlation. Spearman correlation should only be used when you have at least about 10 values for both variables
One advantages of chi squared with ordinal variables is you can collapse categories together if your expected frequencies are too low in order to make the test valid.
Thanks Peter:
This may seem very ignorant, but is there an equivalent for the Chi Square test ?
In statistics, ordinal data is a statistical data type consisting of numerical scores that exist on an ordinal scale, i.e. an arbitrary numerical scale where the exact numerical quantity of a particular value has no significance beyond its ability to establish a ranking over a set of data points.
Cross tabs are frequently used because:
--- They are easy to understand. They appeal to people that do not understand the more sophisticated measures.
--- They can be used with any level of data: nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio - cross tabs treat all data as if it is nominal
--- A table can provide greater insight than single statistics
--- It solves the problem of empty or sparse cells
https://su.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_tab
highered.mheducation.com/sites/.../coL35220_ch02_036_073_final.pdf
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