Quantitative Data Analysis

Question 1

What is data analysis?

Answer 1

A methodology by which individual data points are rendered into meaningful and intelligible information

Question 2

What is a product of data analysis?

Answer 2

Knowledge

Question 3

What are the two categories of data analysis?

Answer 3

Qualitative analysis

Quantitative analysis

Question 4

What are two statistical categories that quantitative fall into?

Answer 4

Descriptive Statistics

Inferential Statistics

Question 5

What is qualitative analysis?

Answer 5

The systematic rational process by which narrative (written data) are organized into meaningful descriptions, of themes, patterns, models or theories

Question 6

What is quantitative analysis?

Answer 6

Use statistical procedures to reduce, summarize, organize, evaluate, interpret, and communicate numeric information.

Question 7

What are descriptive statistics used for?

Answer 7

Use to describe and synthesize data

Question 8

What are inferential statistics used for?

Answer 8

The use of a statistic created from a smaller group (sample) to draw a conclusion about a population.

Question 9

What are descriptive statistics?

Answer 9

Description and/or summarization of sample data.
Allow researchers to arrange data visually to display meaning and to help in understanding the sample characteristics and variables under study.
In some studies, descriptive statistics may be the only results sought from statistical analysis.

Question 10

What are some ways that descriptive statistics are summarized to make the data manageable?

Answer 10

Measure of central tendency
Scatter plot
Range
Mean
Average
percentages

Question 11

What are inferential statistics?

Answer 11

Combines mathematical procedures and logic; allow researchers to test hypotheses about a population using data obtained from probability and nonprobability samples.

Question 12

What is “level of significance” or alpha level?

Answer 12

Probability of making type I error = .05
The researcher is willing to accept the fact that if the study was done 100 times, the decision to reject the null hypothesis would be wrong 5 times out of those 100 trials
Can set probability at .01 if one wants a smaller risk of reflecting a true null hypothesis (the decision to reject the null hypothesis would be wrong 1 time out of 100 trials)

Question 13

What three things determine which statistical test should be chosen?

Answer 13

An appropriate statistical procedure is a function of:

• The research design
• The level of data provided by the data collection instrument
• Sampling procedure

Question 14

What types of studies use descriptive statistics?

Answer 14

• Exploratory Descriptive Designs (case studies)

- Correlational Designs

Question 15

What types of studies use inferential statistics?

Answer 15

– Correlational Designs
– Comparative Designs
– Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs

Question 16

What determines the level of data?

Answer 16

Responses of an instrument determine your level of data.

Question 17

What are four levels of data?

Answer 17

Nominal Measurement
Ordinal Measurement
Interval Measurement
Ratio Measurement

Question 18

What is nominal measurement?

Answer 18

The assignment of numbers to simply classify characteristics into categories

Question 19

What kind of variables are used in nominal measurement? (examples)

Answer 19

Categorical variables. Sometimes called “dummy variables” (Used to quantify variables)

Examples:
Gender
Marital status
Religious affiliation

No= 0 	Yes = 1	
Female= 1		Male = 0

Question 20

What is ordinal measurement?

Answer 20

Permits the sorting of objects on the basis of their standing on an attribute relative to each other
• A higher score is better (or worse), but how much better (or worse) is not known

***It can’t be demonstrated that the intervals between categories are equal in nature (hence, unequal intervals here).

Question 21

What are two types of ordinal measurement?

Answer 21

Class ranking

Likert scale responses

Question 22

What is interval/ratio measurement?

Answer 22

Determines both the rank ordering of objects on an attribute and the distance between those objects

Question 23

What are some examples of interval/ratio measurement?

Answer 23

• Examples:
– Scores on an intelligence test
– Temperature
_ Blood pressure
_ Height
– Length – confidently say that an object is twice as long as another object

Question 24

What are parametric inferential statistics?

Answer 24

More powerful and more flexible than nonparametric; Assumes normal distribution of data; used with interval and ratio variables

Question 25

What are nonparametric inferential statistics? What kind of variables are nonparametric inferential statistics used with?

Answer 25

Not based on the estimation of population parameters;

used with nominal or ordinal variables

Question 26

What are confidence intervals?

Answer 26

An estimated range of values that provides a measure of certainty about the sample findings

Question 27

What is the most commonly reported confidence interval in research?

Answer 27

Most commonly reported in research is a 95% degree of certainty, meaning 95% of the time, the findings will fall within the range of values given as the CI

Question 28

What are some important questions to ask when performing quantitative data analysis?

Answer 28

Are data analysis procedures clearly described?
Were appropriate statistical tests used given the level of measurement that is used to describe each of the major variables?
Are results presented in an understandable way?
Are the results significant?

Question 29

Which sections of an article present the findings of a study?

Answer 29

Results section

Discussion section

Question 30

What findings are presented in the results section?

Answer 30

Presentation of the raw data and analysis.

Question 31

What findings are presented in the discussion section?

Answer 31

The interpretation of the results/findings.

Question 32

What are some questions to ask/aspects to examine when interpreting the results of a quantitative studie?

Answer 32

What are the major findings?
Are the findings accurate and discussed in relation to problem/purpose, hypothesis, framework and lit review?
Are various explanations for the findings examined?
Do the conclusions fit with the findings?
What do the results mean?
Are the results important?
Are the results generalizable?

Question 33

What are some questions to ask/aspects to examine when critiquing the implications and recommendations of a quantitative study?

Answer 33

Do the researchers discuss the study’s implications for clinical practice, education, administration and research?
If yes, are the stated implications appropriate, given the study’s limitations?
Are there important implications that the researchers neglected to include?
How do the findings contribute to current knowledge?