What do I need to consider?
Variables
A variable is any measured characteristic or attribute that differs for different subjects. Quantitative variables are measured on an ordinal, interval, or ratio scale, whereas qualitative variables are measured on a nominal scale (note in SPSS the Interval and Ratio levels are grouped
together and called scale). There are a range of variables that need to be understood, dependent/independent, controlled/continuous/discrete in the application of statistical tests. The independent variable answers the question “What do I change?”, the dependent variable answers the
question “What do I observe?” and the controlled variable answers the question “What do I keep the same?”. A variable which can have any numerical value is called a continuous variable (e.g. time). A variable which can only have whole numbers (integers) is called a discrete variable (e.g. the number of people in a group). It is important to understand the variable you have for analysis of data in statistical packages such as SPSS.
Inference
If working with inferential statistics you need a sound understanding of your population (the set of individuals, items, or data, also called universe) and your sample (a subset of elements taken from a population). See the section on quantitative surveys for further discussion on populations and samples. We make inferences (conclusions) about a population from a sample taken from it, therefore it is important that population and sampling is well understood, as any error will influence your inferences (conclusions). In some situations we can examine the entire population, then there is no inference from a sample.
Confidence & Significance
The confidence interval is an interval estimate of a population parameter, this is the plus-or-minus figure reported in, for example, newspaper or television opinion poll results. If you use a confidence interval of 4 for example, and 54% percent of your sample picks one answer, you can be “sure” that if you had asked the question of the entire relevant population, between
50% and 58% would have picked that answer (plus or minus 4). There are three factors that determine the size of the confidence interval for a given confidence level. These are: sample size, percentage and population size (see below).
• The confidence level tells you how sure you can be that this inference is correct. Most social science researchers use the 95% confidence level, which means you can be 95% certain; while
the 99% confidence level means you can be 99% certain. When you apply the confidence level and the confidence interval together, you could say that you are 95% sure that between 50%
and 58% would have picked that answer.In statistics, a result is called statistically significant if it is unlikely to have occurred by chance. In statistics, “significant” means probably true, and not ‘important’. The findings of your research may be proved to be ‘true’ but this does not necessarily mean that the findings are ‘important’. In social science, results with a 95% confidence level are
accepted as significant. Factors that affect the confidence interval The confidence interval is affected by three factors. These are the sample size, percentage and population size.
Sample Size
The larger your sample, the more confident you can be that their answers truly reflect the population. The relationship between the confidence interval and sample size is not linear. An example can be found below:
What do I need to consider?
Variables
A variable is any measured characteristic or attribute that differs for different subjects. Quantitative variables are measured on an ordinal, interval, or ratio scale, whereas qualitative variables are measured on a nominal scale (note in SPSS the Interval and Ratio levels are grouped
together and called scale). There are a range of variables that need to be understood, dependent/independent, controlled/continuous/discrete in the application of statistical tests. The independent variable answers the question “What do I change?”, the dependent variable answers the
question “What do I observe?” and the controlled variable answers the question “What do I keep the same?”. A variable which can have any numerical value is called a continuous variable (e.g. time). A variable which can only have whole numbers (integers) is called a discrete variable (e.g. the number of people in a group). It is important to understand the variable you have for analysis of data in statistical packages such as SPSS.
Inference
If working with inferential statistics you need a sound understanding of your population (the set of individuals, items, or data, also called universe) and your sample (a subset of elements taken from a population). See the section on quantitative surveys for further discussion on populations and samples. We make inferences (conclusions) about a population from a sample taken from it, therefore it is important that population and sampling is well understood, as any error will influence your inferences (conclusions). In some situations we can examine the entire population, then there is no inference from a sample.
Confidence & Significance
The confidence interval is an interval estimate of a population parameter, this is the plus-or-minus figure reported in, for example, newspaper or television opinion poll results. If you use a confidence interval of 4 for example, and 54% percent of your sample picks one answer, you can be “sure” that if you had asked the question of the entire relevant population, between
50% and 58% would have picked that answer (plus or minus 4). There are three factors that determine the size of the confidence interval for a given confidence level. These are: sample size, percentage and population size (see below).
• The confidence level tells you how sure you can be that this inference is correct. Most social science researchers use the 95% confidence level, which means you can be 95% certain; while
the 99% confidence level means you can be 99% certain. When you apply the confidence level and the confidence interval together, you could say that you are 95% sure that between 50%
and 58% would have picked that answer.In statistics, a result is called statistically significant if it is unlikely to have occurred by chance. In statistics, “significant” means probably true, and not ‘important’. The findings of your research may be proved to be ‘true’ but this does not necessarily mean that the findings are ‘important’. In social science, results with a 95% confidence level are
accepted as significant. Factors that affect the confidence interval The confidence interval is affected by three factors. These are the sample size, percentage and population size.
Sample Size
The larger your sample, the more confident you can be that their answers truly reflect the population. The relationship between the confidence interval and sample size is not linear. An example can be found below:
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