Professional prestige was determined using the psychophysical methods of magnitude estimation and cross-modality matching with line lengths and dynamometric forces as responses. The main results revealed that: (a) the rankings order resulting from all methods employed provide degrees of prestige which are in close agreement with the different professions (w = 0.94), (b) the non-metric continuum of professional prestige exhibits prothetic characteristics, (c) the variability of estimations is a linear function of the estimation of magnitudes, thus confirming that Ekman's law is also valid for non-metric continua, (d) the exponents obtained using matchings of number, line lenghts and force of hangrip were not significantly different from the exponents predicted by the transitivity property of scales and, finally (e) the data furnish a scale of professional prestige which, at the level of ratio measurement, is valid, stable and consistent.
professional prestige; nursing research; ratio measurement; social psychophysics; magnitude estimation
