Glossary N

Nominal measure refers to a variable whose attributes have only the characteristics of exhaustiveness and mutual exclusiveness. In other words, a level of measurement describing a variable that has attributes that are merely different, as distinguished from ordinal, interval, or ratio measures. An example of Nominal measure would be Gender.

Nominal scale is defined as a measurement scale that possesses the property of difference; a scale of measurement in which the categories represent qualitative differences in the variable being measured. The categories have different names but are not related to each other in any systematic way.

Nominal-kind concept are concepts pertaining to ideas or objects that have well-delimited definitions.

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Nominalism is the belief that so-called universals are nothing more than verbal labels or mental habits which are used to denote classes of experience.

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Nomothetic refers to an approach to explanation in which people seek to identify a few causal factors that generally impact a class of conditions or events. Imagine the 2 or 3 key factors that determine which colleges students choose, such as proximity, reputation, and so forth. By contrast, please see Idiographic.

Nomothetic Approach refers to the approach to the study of personality stresses that uniqueness may be accounted for as a point of intersection of a number of quantitative variables.

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Nomothetic Formulation refers to an approach to case formulation or Assessment that emphasizes general principles that apply to all people.

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Non-accidental properties (NAPs) are properties of edges in the retinal image that correspond to the properties of edges in the three-dimensional environment. For example, a non-accidental property of a rectangular solid is three (3) parallel edges. Non-accidental properties are visible from most viewpoints.

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