Review of Statistical Analysis

Frankfort Review Chapter-01.qxd

5/13/2005

12:20 PM

Page 1

A Review of
Descriptive Data Analysis

Descriptive Data Analysis for Nominal
Variables: Gender and Local Political
Party Activism
Organize the Data into a Frequency
Distribution
Display the Data in a Graph
Describe What Is Average or Typical of a
Distribution
Describe Variability Within a Distribution
Describe the Relationship Between Two
Variables
Descriptive Data Analysis for Ordinal
Variables: Continuing Our Research
Example
Organize the Data into a Frequency
Distribution
Display the Data in a Graph

I

Describe What Is Average or Typical of a
Distribution
Describe Variability Within a Distribution
Describe the Relationship Between
Two Variables
Descriptive Data Analysis for IntervalRatio Variables: Education and Income
Organize the Data into a Frequency
Distribution
Display the Data in a Graph
Describe What Is Average or Typical of a
Distribution
Describe Variability Within a Distribution
Describe the Relationship Between Two
Variables
A Final Note

n the first eight chapters we have introduced you to methods researchers use to organize data and describe relationships between variables. We have presented the chapters sequentially to reflect five cumulative stages of data analysis:

1. Organizing the data using frequency distributions (Chapter 2)
2. Displaying the data using graphic techniques (Chapter 3)

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Frankfort Review Chapter-01.qxd

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12:20 PM

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2— S O C I A L S T A T I S T I C S F O R A D I V E R S E S O C I E T Y

Figure 1

Flowchart of the Systematic Approach to Descriptive Data Analysis
Description of a Population
Organize Data

Interval-Ratio

Nominal or Ordinal

Grouped Frequency
Distribution

Frequency Distribution
Display Data

Interval-Ratio
Multiple Groups

Single Group

Frequency
Polygon

Histogram

Nominal or Ordinal
One or
Several Groups
One or
Several Pies

Change