POL242Y1 Lecture Notes - Square Number, Marginal Distribution, Contingency Table
Document Summary
Most causal thinking in social sciences is probablistic, not deterministic: as x increases, the probability of y increase, not that x invariably produces y. We can observe only association per hume. Inferring causal relations: there must be association. X y; ~x ~y: time order must be considered, must rule out possible rival explanations, must be able to identify the process by which one factor brings about change in another. Using/interpreting crosstabs: data arranged in side-by-side frequency distributions. Independent variable (x) presented across the top of the table in columns. If ordinal, arrange from low scores (on left) to high scores (on right: dependent variable (y) presented down the left hand side of the table in rows. To see the effect of the iv on the dv). Rules of crosstabs: make the iv define the columns and the dv define the rows of the table, always percentage down within categories of the iv.
