Basics

Question 1

What is a case?

Answer 1

A case is a bounded unit of analysis I.e an individual person, a group, organisation, area or region

Question 2

What is a dependent variable?

Answer 2

The variable we are trying to measure through manipulation of the independent variable

Question 3

Independent variable

Answer 3

The variable we are manipulating to measure the dependent variable

Question 4

Internal validity

Answer 4

The extent to which we can say the dependent variable was not affected by any variable other than the independent variable

Question 5

Measurement validity

Answer 5

Do the measures effectively grasp the concepts we are trying to measure? (I.e asking if something is good or being more specific such as asking is it helpful or friendly)

Question 6

What are the 3 main basic classifications of statistics?

Answer 6

Descriptive statistics
Inferential statistics
Explanatory statistics

Question 7

What are descriptive statistics

Answer 7

descriptive statistics summarise the data by indicating how frequent and how typical or atypical particular qualities are (I.e characteristics of a population via organising and summarising data)

Question 8

Which type of data determines if the sample is normally distributed (I.e symmetrical skewness/ bell curve)

Answer 8

Descriptive statistics

Question 9

What are inferential statistics used for

Answer 9

Use sample data to draw conclusions about the population

Question 10

What type of statistic uses probability to determine how confident we can be that the conclusions we made are correct (I.e confidence intervals & margins or error)

Answer 10

Inferential

Question 11

What type of statistic organises and summarises data using numbers and graphs

Answer 11

Descriptive statistics

Question 12

How do descriptive statistics summarise data?

Answer 12

Bar graphs, histograms, pie charts etc. Looks at the shape of the graph and skewness

Question 13

What are explanatory statistics

Answer 13

Statistics which identify patterns in data which might imply casual relations between one factor and another

Question 14

What are concepts?

Answer 14

The building blocks of theory, they represents points around which the research is constructed (e.g through a concept like social mobility we notice that some people improve their socio-economic position relative to their parents)

Question 15

What are measurements?

Answer 15

Measurements allow us to outline fine differences between people in terms of the characteristics over time, allowing us to see how consistent we are with other researchers and how consistent we are over time

Question 16

What is a likert scale?

Answer 16

A likert scale is a multiple indicator or multiple item measure of a set of attitudes relating to a specific idea with the goal of measuring intensity of feelings regarding the area in question, each respondents reply is scored on strength of emotion

Question 17

What does reliability refer to?

Answer 17

The consistency of a measure of a concept

Question 18

What does validity refer to?

Answer 18

Whether an indicator that is devised to gauge a concept really measures that concept

Question 19

What is the operationalisation process?

Answer 19

The process of defining measures for your concepts

I.e concept > operationalisation > measurement

Question 20

What are the levels of measurement variables are defined by?

Answer 20

Nominal, ordinal or scale (interval/ ratio)

Question 21

What is a variable?

Answer 21

A variable is a measurable characteristic or quality of a case such as socioeconomic background, hours of study per week etc.,

Question 22

What is the nominal level of measurement

Answer 22

• values in independent categories with no order (I.e gender, ethnicity)

Question 23

What is the ordinal level of measurement?

Answer 23

Values categorised with in exact differences (I.e attitude scale agree/ disagree or age group under 18, 18-50, 50+

Question 24

What is the scale level of measurement?

Answer 24

Values with exact and real numbers which measure something I.e an exact number of age in years

Question 25

What type of statistic is basic quantitative analysis concerned with summarising data though?

Answer 25

Descriptive statistics

Question 26

What levels of variable measurement can we summarise data using percentages

Answer 26

Categorical (nominal or ordinal)

Question 27

What is the relative frequency

Answer 27

The relative frequency refers to the percentage or proportion of times that a given variable occurs within a set of numbers, such as in the data recorded for a variable in a survey data set

• e.g the variable we are measuring is socioeconomic background, if 30% of respondents are from a lower socioeconomic background, that is the relative frequency

Question 28

Mode

Answer 28

Most commonly occurring value

Question 29

Median

Answer 29

Middle values when all values ordered low to high

Question 30

Mean

Answer 30

The arithmetically derived average value