Definitions

Question 1

Qualitative Techniques

Answer 1

Research methods that do not involve math or statistics

Question 2

Quantitative Techniques

Answer 2

Research methods involve systematic analysis via statistics, math, models

Question 3

Observation/Case

Answer 3

Basic unit for which data are collected; an experimental unit

Question 4

Variable

Answer 4

Characteristic or attribute of observations that can be measured

Columns in a data table or spreadsheet
Data value: measured result of a variable for each of the observations/cases
Ex: favorite foods of people chosen for a study; last sale price of addresses chosen at random

Question 5

Discrete Variables

Answer 5

Variables taking only distinct, countable values

Integers/whole numbers, specific fractions/decimals without a range
Ex: number of pages read, shoe sizes (can be 8.5 but not 8.325)

Question 6

Continuous Variables

Answer 6

Usually obtained via measurements
Doesn’t make sense to count variables
Any fractions and decimals possible
Ex: weight, speed, mass

Question 7

Variables:

Answer 7

Qualitative
Quantitative
Discrete
Continuous

Question 8

Quantitative Variables

Answer 8

Discrete
Continuous

Question 9

Sample

Answer 9

Sample: subset of population

Question 10

Inferential Statistics

Answer 10

Generalizes (makes predictions) about a statistical pop. based on info from a sample

Question 11

Bivariate Statistics

Answer 11

Studying the relationship between two variables

Question 12

Nominal Scale

Answer 12

Sorting cases into exclusive categories

Each category given a title
Not ranked against each other
Just different
Every data value must go in a category
Can’t go in more than one
Often non-numerical
Ex: religion, sector of the economy, type of volcano, species of snake

Question 13

Ordinal Scale

Answer 13

Putting values in a specific order (ranking)

No specific distance between values
Greater than/less than, high to low
Categories aren’t equal
Ex: 10 best cities to Illinois, countries ranked by happiness, movie ratings

Question 14

Interval Scale

Answer 14

Equal intervals between numerical points
Amount/magnitude of difference between cases is a specific distance
Starting point is arbitrary
0 does not mean absence of
Ex: Fahrenheit scale, credit score

Question 15

Ratio Scale

Answer 15

Equal intervals between numerical points
Origin or starting point is natural
0 means absence of what you are measuring (can’t be negative)
Ex: amount of precipitation, miles per hour, person’s age

Question 16

Frequency

Answer 16

Determining number of times the same data value occurs in a data set

Question 17

Dispersion

Answer 17

calculations that show how values in a dataset spread about the center

Question 18

Variance

Answer 18

Determines how far each value is from the mean & from every other value in the dataset

Question 19

Symmetric

Answer 19

same value for mean/median/mode or multimodal peaks are mirror images of each other

Question 20

Uniform

Answer 20

Uniform distribution: each data value occurs with the same frequency

Question 21

Asymmetric

Answer 21

Question 22

Positively skewed

Answer 22

Question 23

Negatively skewed

Answer 23