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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY- MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY

At the end of the topic, you will be able to:

1. know the different statistical treatment that can be used in a research paper
2. compute mean, median and mode for questionnaire validation;
3. come up with correct statistical treatment for their research paper.

8. Statistical Treatment

 Statistics- numerical index describing a characteristic of a sample.

 Statistical Treatment- a mathematical treatment used for summarizing or analyzing
numerical data or information.

1. Measure of Central Tendency

a. Mean- the most common measure of central tendency. It is simply the sum of the
numbers divided by the number of numbers
Formula in getting the mean:
μ = ( ΣX ) / N
Example:
Scores (1, 2, 3, 6, 8)
1+2+3+6+8 = 20/5
Ans. 4 - is the Mean in the given set of scores

b. Median- is the "middle" value in the list of numbers. To find the median, your
numbers have to be listed in numerical order from smallest to largest.
Example:
Scores (13, 13, 13, 13, 14, 14, 16, 18, 21)
13, 13, 13, 13, 14, 14, 16, 18, 21
Ans. 14

c. Mode- is the value that occurs most often. If no number in the list is repeated, then
there is no mode for the list.
Example:
Scores (13, 13, 13, 13, 14, 14, 16, 18, 21)
Ans. 13

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2. Standard Deviation- is a measure of the dispersion of a set of data from its mean.

3. F-Test and T-Test

P-value- is the probability of getting results as extreme as observed values under null
hypothesis. For practical purposes, reject a null hypothesis if the P-Value is less than alpha
(generally 5% or 0.05)

 T-Test- this is used to find out if the means between two populations is significantly
different.

Characteristics of the test are;

1) The test statistic follows a t distribution under null hypothesis.
2) The test can be used to find if the mean of a population is different from a known mean.
3) The test can be used to find out if the means of two samples are significantly different. Note
that the two populations need to follow the normal distribution. Also the variances of the two
populations need to be equal if sample size is less than 30.
4) The test can be used to find out if the difference between values of a single variable
measured at different times is zero.
5) The test can be used to find out if the regression line has a slope different from zero.
6) Paired vs un-paired: A test of type 3 is a paired test. The samples are independent. A test of
type 4 is an unpaired test. In many cases of unpaired data, it is the same variable undergoing
repeated observations.
For example: measurements taken before and after an experiment.
7) The questions that need to be answered before using the t-test are: is it a single population
or multiple populations, are the sample sizes equal, are the variances equal, and is it a paired or
un-paired test.

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 F-Test- is used to find out if the variances between two populations are significantly
different.

Characteristics of an F-test are:

1) The test statistic has an F distribution under null hypothesis. I.e. the ratio of variances follows
an F distribution.
2) F-test can be used to find out if the means of multiple populations having same standard
deviation differ significantly from each other. (ANOVA)
3) F-test can be used to find out if the data fits into a regression model obtained using least
square analysis. Here we compare is the mean square due to error is significantly different from
the mean square due to regression.
4) The test can be a two tailed test or a one tailed test.
5) F-test for ANOVA for two variables is equivalent to performing the t-test. Also the relation is
given by F=t squared.
6) For ANOVA the F test is the measure of ratio of variance between groups and variance with
the sample groups.

4. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)- is a statistical technique that assesses potential differences in

a scale-level dependent variable by a nominal-level variable having 2 or more categories. For
example, an ANOVA can examine potential differences in IQ scores by Country (US vs. Canada
vs. Italy vs. Spain). The ANOVA, developed by Ronald Fisher in 1918, extends thet and the z-test
which have the problem of only allowing the nominal level variable to have just two categories.
This test is also called the Fisher analysis of variance.

General Purpose of ANOVA

Researchers and students use ANOVA in many ways. The use of ANOVA depends on the
research design. Commonly, ANOVAs are used in three ways: one-way ANOVA, two-way
ANOVA, and N-way Multivariate ANOVA.

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One-Way ANOVA
One-way ANOVA refers to the number of independent variables--not the number of categories
in each variable. A one-way ANOVA has just one independent variable. For example, difference
in IQ can be assessed by Country, and County can have 2, 20, or more different Countries in
that variable.

Two-Way ANOVA
A two-way ANOVA refers to an ANOVA using 2 independent variable. Expanding the example
above, a 2-way ANOVA can examine differences in IQ scores (the dependent variable) by
Country (independent variable 1) and Gender (independent variable 2). Two-way ANOVA’s can
be used to examine the INTERACTION between the two independent variables. Interactions
indicate that differences are not uniform across all categories of the independent variables. For
example, females may have higher IQ scores overall compared to males, and are much greater
in European Countries compared to North American Countries.

Two-way ANOVAs are also called factorial ANOVA. Factorial ANOVAs can be balanced (have the
same number of participants in each group) or unbalanced (having different number of
participants in each group). Not having equal size groups can make it appear that there is an
effect when this may not be the case.

5. Chi-Square- this is a nonparametric test of statistical significance that is used when research
data are in the form of frequency counts for two or more categories.

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Reference/s:

Baraceros, Esther L. (2017), Practical Research 2, Rex Book Store, Inc., First Edition
Baraceros, Esther L. (2017), Practical Research 1, Rex Book Store, Inc., First Edition
Sarno, Emerlita G. (2010), Tips and Techniques in Writing Research, Rex Book Store,
Inc.

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