LECTURE 2.

Quantitative Research
Objective

 Differentiate quantitative from qualitative

research
 Review the different tasks involved in quantitative
research
 Examine the role of statistics in quantitative
research
 Find out what software tools can help in statistical
analysis
 Gain familiarity on SPSS features that can help in
data analysis and interpretation
What is research?

1. careful or diligent search

2. studious inquiry or examination; especially :
investigation or experimentation aimed at
the discovery and interpretation of facts,
revision of accepted theories or laws in the
light of new facts, or practical application of
such new or revised theories or laws
Research Methods

QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE

 Systematic empirical  Understanding of behavior

investigation of and the reasons that govern
quantitative properties and such behavior
phenomena and their
relationships
 Seeks precise  Individuals� interpretation
measurement & analysis of of events is important
target concepts
  Uses observation, in-depth
Uses surveys, tests,
experiments interview, focus groups
Defining the research problem

How do we enhance the quality of day-to-day

living of families?

What are the major factors that affect the quality

of day-to-day living of families?

What will help guarantee access to these

resources?

Does early exposure to entrepreneurial activity

guarantee success in business?

What is the correlation of early exposure to

entrepreneurial activity to a person’s business
acumen?
Steps in Carrying out Quantitative
Research
Define the research
Early exposure problem
to
entrepreneurial Create the research
activities plan

Gather data

Business Perform calculations

and analysis
Success?
Formulate
conclusions/POAs
Statistics is critical to research design
and data analysis
Methodology Data Analysis Plan
• Population & Sample • Statistical techniques that
• Dependent, independent, will be used for analysis
control and other variables
• Level of measurement
• Data gathering tool
• Procedures

Introduction Schedule & Budget

• Problem • Activities/Timeline
• Literature • Projected Expenses
• Hypothesis • Funding

The
Research
Plan
Data Collection Pointers

 Ask for information in such a way as it will be

most accurately reported
 Think very carefully about the scales and
specificity of information needed in your
research before you begin collecting data
 Use interval/ratio measurement levels rather
than nominal or ordinal where possible
What is Statistics

 A quantity used to estimate a value in a

population (collection of all the elements
under consideration), but computed from a
sample (a part/subset of the population)
 A range of techniques and procedures for
analysing, interpreting, displaying, and
making decisions based on data
Statistical Analysis Packages
Product Description
SAS Originally, Statistical Analysis System; Conceived by Anthony J. Barr in 1966;
has become an evolving system for complete data management and analysis;
considered an industry standard statistical software package in some regions
MINITAB Developed at the Pennsylvania State University by researchers Barbara F. Ryan,
Thomas A. Ryan, Jr., and Brian L. Joiner in 1972; often used in conjunction with
the implementation of Six Sigma, CMMI and other statistics-based process
improvement methods.
BMDP Developed in 1961 at UCLA; Based on the older BIMED program for biomedical
applications. Originally distributed for free; now offered by Statistical
Solutions.
SPSS Between 2009 and 2010 the premier software for SPSS was called PASW
(Predictive Analytics SoftWare) Statistics; acquired by IBM. As of January 2010,
it became "SPSS: An IBM Company".
S-PLUS a commercial implementation of the S programming language sold by TIBCO
Software Inc. It features object-oriented programming capabilities and
advanced analytical algorithms.
A closer look at SPSS ...

 IBM SPSS Statistics 18 (formerly SPSS Statistics) is a statistical

analysis package
 Enables you to get a quick look at your data, formulate
hypotheses for additional testing, and then carry out a number
of procedures to help clarify relationships between variables,
create clusters, identify trends and make predictions
 For the beginner, it has clear advantages over Excel
 Easy access to descriptive statistics and frequencies
 Wider variety of charts & graphs
 Full set of statistical tests
 Easy to run similar reports and graphics for subsets
 Allows you to use labels instead of codes in your reports
 Unlimited rows
 Makes it easy to understand statistical results
Branches of Statistics
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS INFERENTIAL STATISTICS
Comprise those methods concerned with Comprise methods concerned with the
collecting, describing and analyzing a set analysis of sample data leading to
of data without drawing conclusions or predictions or inferences about the
inferences about a large group. population.
•Presentation of tables •Estimation, error and significance tests
•Construction of graphs •Hypothesis testing
•Computation of summary measures •Correlation
• Central tendency •Regression analysis
• Location •Forecasting
• Dispersion
• Skewness
Data Types in Research
Data Type Measurem Description Example
ent Level
Categorical/ Nominal Only labels Gender (Male,
Qualitative Female)
Ordinal There is meaningful order, but no Shirt Size (Small,
measurable distance between Medium, Large)
categories
Scale / Interval Indicate both order and distance Temperature
Quantitative between values; intervals have the
same interpretation throughout
but do not have a true zero point
Ratio Have a true zero point Weight
Laboratory

SPSS
Lab 1: Data Editor
1. Start PASW Statistics 18 and select “Type in Data”
2. Go to “Variable View” and enter the following
▪ Gender (Male, Female)
▪ Age (age in years)
▪ Status (Single, In a Relationship, Complicated)
▪ Coffee (cups of coffee consumed per day)
▪ Internet (hours spent on internet per day)
▪ Extra (hours spent on extra-curricular work)
▪ Units (number of units taken)
▪ Sleep (hours of sleep per day)
3. For each variable, supply the Type, Width, Decimals, Label,
Values, Missing, Columns, Align, Measure and Role
4. Interview your classmates and type in the information in Data
View
Lab 2: Descriptive Statistics
1. Display frequency tables, descriptive statistics &
histograms (Analyze >> Descriptive Statistics)
2. Create a boxplot of all scale variables
3. What can you say about the data? Which variables are
normally distributed?
4. In the table below, fill out which statistics are applicable to
each data type.
DATA TYPE MEAN MEDIAN MODE DISPERSIO DISTRIBUTI PERCENTIL
N ON ES
NOMINAL
ORDINAL
INTERVAL
RATIO
Measures of Central Tendency
 Any single value which is used to identify the “center” of the
data or the typical value

Mean Arithmetic average

Median Value at which half the cases fall above and below
Mode Category with the greatest number of cases or frequency
Sum The sum or total of the values, across all cases with
nonmissing values
Measures of Location
 Numbers below which a specified amount or percentage of
data must lie and are oftentimes used to find the position of
a specific piece of data in relation to the entire set of data

Percentiles Values that divide an ordered set of data into 100 equal
parts
Deciles values that divide an ordered set of data into 10 equal parts
Quartiles values that divide an ordered set of data into 4 equal parts
Measures of Dispersion
 numerical descriptive measures which indicate the extent to
which individual observations in a set of data are scattered
about an average

Range the difference between the largest and smallest values in a

data set
Standard Deviation a measure of dispersion which indicate the extent of
Variance scattering of the observations from the mean
Minimum / Maximum Smallest/ largest value of a numeric variable
S.E. mean Measure of how much the value of the mean may vary
from sample to sample taken from the same distribution
Coefficient of variation Ratio of standard deviation to the mean; independent of
units of the observations; used to compare variability of 2
or more sets of data
Measures of Distribution
 Describe the shape and symmetry of the distribution

Skewness Measure of asymmetry of a distribution; Normal

distribution has a skewness of 0
A long right tail has positive skewness
A long left tail has negative skewness
Kurtosis Measure of extent to which observations cluster around a
central point; Normal distribution has kurtosis of 0
Positive kurtosis indicates observations are more clustered
about the center (leptokurtic)
Negative kurtosis indicates that observations cluster less
about the center (platykurtic)
Descriptive Statistics Case
Studies
Instructions:
For lab 3 to lab 12, refer to the case studies under Help.
Save each lab’s output file as SPSS_LABn_your name.

 Lab 3: Summary Statistics Using Frequencies

 Lab 4: Summary Statistics Using Descriptives
 Lab 5: Exploratory Data Analysis
 Descriptive Statistics Across Groups
 Exploring Distributions
Inferential Statistics Case Studies

 Lab 6: Analysis of Cross-Classifications Using Crosstabs

 Nominal-by-Nominal Relationships
 Ordinal-by-Ordinal Relationships
 Lab 7: The Means Procedure
 Using Means to Obtain Descriptive Statistics
 One-way ANOVA and Test of Linearity
 Lab 8: T Tests
 One-Sample
 Paired-Samples
 Independent-Samples
 Lab 9: Partial Correlations
 Lab 10: Linear Regression
 Lab 11: K-Means Cluster Analysis
 Lab 12: Discriminant Analysis