Statistical Analysis Flashcards

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from the lecture notes on statistical analysis.

Quantitative Academic Research

Understanding and evaluating quantitative academic research.

Statistical Analysis in Public Discourse

Being critical about how statistics are used in public discourse (e.g., in the media).

Data Analysis Decisions

Taking well-informed decisions about how to analyze your own data to answer a specific research question.

SPSS

Using SPSS to organize your data, run the chosen analyses & interpret your SPSS output.

Population

The set of all possible cases of interest.

Sample

A set of cases that does not include every member of the population.

Descriptive Statistics

Summarizing and describing the main features of a dataset.

Inferential Statistics

Making inferences and generalizations about a population based on sample data.

Variable

A condition or quality that can differ from one case to another.

Case

An entity that displays or possesses the traits of a variable (unit of analysis).

Nominal Level of Measurement

Group classifications with no meaningful ranking possible and arbitrary numerical coding.

Ordinal Level of Measurement

Meaningful ranking where intervals between categories are unknown or not equal.

Interval Level of Measurement

Meaningful ranking with equal distances between categories.

Ratio Level of Measurement

All properties of interval level plus an absolute and true zero point.

Discrete Variable

A variable that has a finite number of values.

Continuous Variable

A variable that can vary in quantity by infinitesimally small degrees.

Mean

A measure of central tendency calculated by summing all values and dividing by the number of observations; best used for interval/ratio variables.

Median

A measure of central tendency representing the middle value when data is sorted; suitable for ordinal and interval/ratio variables and robust to outliers.

Mode

The category with the largest amount of cases; used for nominal, ordinal, or interval/ratio variables.