Chapter 11 - The Basics of Quantitative Data Analysis Flashcards
Codebook
The document used in quantitative data processing and analysis that tells the location of different data items in a data file
Cleaning data
The process of checking data entered into a computer for entry errors
Descriptive statistics
Statistical computations describing and summarizing the characteristics of a sample
Frequency distribution
A description of the number of times the various attributes of a variable are observed in a sample
Normal curve
A frequency distribution of scores in which the majority of scores hover around the average with progressively fewer scores that depart from the average; scores distribute themselves in known ways; the mean, median, and mode are identical; and the curve has a kurtosis value of 3
Skew
A statistical term to refer to a departure from a normal curve, in which the mean, median, and mode are not equal
Kurtosis
A statistical term that refers to the extent to which a frequency distribution departs from a normal curve with respect to its heigh
Central tendency
A statistical term for what is typical or normal in a sample, such as mean, median, and mode
Mode
A type of average, representing the most frequently observed value or attribute
Mean
An average, computed by summing the values of several observations and dividing by the number of observations
Median
An average, representing the value of the “middle” case in a rank-ordered set of observations
Dispersion
The distribution of values around some central value, such as a mean
Range
A measure of dispersion composed of the highest and lowest values of a variable in some set of observations
Standard deviation
A statistical term that refers to the dispersion of a data set around the mean score
Standard score
A statistical term that refers to how many standard deviations a given score is from the distribution’s mean.
