soc data test 1

what is the research process?

what is a theory

an explanation of the relationship between two or more observable attributes of individuals or groups 

what is a variable

A property of people or objects that takes on two or more values. Must include categories that are both exhaustive and mutually exclusive

What are the 3 conditions are required to establish causal relations?

1. The cause has to precede the effect in time

2. There has to be an empirical relationship between the cause and effect 

3. This relationship cannot be explained be explained by other factors 

what is a nominal variable

Numbers or other symbols are assigned to a set of categories for the purpose of naming, labeling, or classifying the observations  (political party , religion, gender)

what is an ordinal variable

levels that can be ranked from low to high (social class , dog size)  

what is an interval ratio variable

All cases are expressed in the same units and have a natural 0 point ( age , income)

What is a population

The total set of individuals, objects, groups, or events in which the researcher is interested

What is a sample

A relatively small subset selected from a population

what are descriptive statistics

Procedures that help us organize and describe data collected from either a sample or a population 

what are inferential statistics

The logic and procedures concerned with making inferences or predictions about a population from observations and analyses of a sample 

What things should we pay attention to when reading a statistical table

What is the source of the table. How many variables are represented , what are their names. What is represented by the numbers presented in the first column? In the second column ?

What is a frequency distribution?

a representation, either in a graphical or tabular format, that displays the number of observations within a given interval.

why is a frequency distribution so important

it allows researchers to easily visualize and understand the patterns within a dataset by showing how often each value occurs

to what does (N) refer to?

the total sample size

What are proportions

Refers to the fraction of the total that possess a certain attribute. A relative frequency obtained by dividing the frequency in each category by the total number of cases  

What are percentages?

A relative frequency obtained by dividing the frequency in each category by the total number of cases and multiplying by 100. 

Percentage distributions show what?

A distribution showing the percentage at or below each category of the variable 

What is a cumulative frequency?

the total number of observations that fall below or at a given value in a data set

what types of chart use nominal variables

pie charts and bar graphs

what types of chart use ordinal variables

bar graphs - sometimes pie charts but not as effective

what types of chart use interval ratio variables

histograms

what types of chart use interval ratio variables overtime

line graph , time series chart

Why are measures of central tendency useful?

because they provide a summary of a dataset by identifying a typical or central value.

what is the mode and how to calculate it

The category or score with the largest frequency in the distribution , arrange numbers from lowest to highest and find the most frequent number

what is the median and how to calculate it

The middle score, or average of middle scores in a distribution, for odd it will be one number in the middle, for even it will be two numbers in the middle. mark them off one by one

what is the mean and how to calculate it

A measure of central tendency that is obtained by adding up all the scores and dividing by the total number of scores 

What is a symmetrical distribution?

a data set where the values are evenly spread around the central point, meaning if you were to draw a line down the middle of a graph representing the data, the left and right sides would be mirror images of each other

What does it mean to have a positive skew

When the mean is higher than the median or is positioned to the right of the median.  positive has a longer or fatter tail on the right 

What does it mean to have a negative skew

When the mean is lower than the median or is positioned to the left of the median

What are measures of variability?

it describes how spread out the numbers in a dataset are.

When would you use the index of qualitative variation (IQV)?

measures how evenly spread categories are in a dataset. Use it for categorical data (e.g., hair color, favorite sport, political party).

• High IQV = Responses are spread out across many categories.

• Low IQV = Most responses fall into just one or a few categories.

what is the range

• A measure of variation in interval ratio variables 

• It is the difference between the highest (maximum) and the lowest (minimum) scores in the distribution

what is the interquartile range

• Used for interval ratio data 

  • Indicates the width of the middle 50 % of the distribution and is defined as the difference between the lower and upper quartiles

what is the variance

• A measure of variation for interval ratio variables 

• It is the average of the squared deviations from the mean 

what is standard deviation

• A measure of variation for interval ratio variables 

• It is equal to the square root of the variance

What was this study about? - south and spitz

differences in housework division between married and unmarried couples.

what was the dependent variable in south and spitz

amount of housework (hours per week)

what was the independent variables in south and spitz

marital status, gender , employment status , income

what were the findings of south and spitz

Across all relationship types, women performed significantly more housework than men.

what kind of research and design is south and spitz

secondary data analysis , quantative survey research , cross sectional study