SCS 2150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Data Analysis, Multivariate Analysis, Univariate

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Social Sciences
• Course: SCS 2150
• Professor: ivan Katchanovski

Document Summary

Variables have different values and provide quantitative measurement for concepts. Nominal -- only difference between participants is one category or another, no ranking or numeric value, can"t do mathematical/arithmetic operations. Ordinal -- variables can be ranked, still can"t do mathematical/arithmetic operations, distance is not equal between categories. I. e likert scale -- very satisfied, not satisfied, etc. Interval/ratio variable -- uniform distance between categories, can do mathematical/arithmetic operations -- ratio variables start at zero. 1 sib + 3 sibs = 4 sibs. May want to know the numeric value of something to see if it correlates with some sort of relationship (which will be the point of your quantitative research) Choice of variable will affect type of analysis. Statistics are used to analyze ([non] academic) quantitative data. Statistical softwares such as spss and stata are precise and convenient, but also often misused (we think answer is certain since it"s technology and must always be right)