Statistics

M. Fuat Kına

Fall 2017 Ch. 1-1

 1.1
Decision Making
in an Uncertain Environment

◼ Everyday decisions are based on incomplete

information.

Examples:
◼ Should I enroll in a sociology program, will I find a job?

◼ Will the price of gold be higher in six months than it is now?

◼ Will the prestige of Şehir University be lower or higher

when I graduate?

Fall 2017 Ch. 1-2

 Decision Making
in an Uncertain Environment

◼ Data are used to assist decision making.

◼ Statistics is a tool to help process, summarize,

analyze and interpret data.

Fall 2017 Ch. 1-3

 Decision Making
in an Uncertain Environment

Key Definitions
◼ A population is the collection of all items of interest or

under investigation.
◼ N represents the population size.
◼ A sample is an observed subset of the population.
◼ n represents the sample size.

Fall 2017 Ch. 1-4

 Decision Making
in an Uncertain Environment

Population Sample

Values calculated using Values computed from

population data are called sample data are called
parameters. statistics.

Fall 2017 Ch. 1-5

 Decision Making
in an Uncertain Environment

Examples of Population
◼ Names of all registered voters in the Turkey
◼ Incomes of all families living in Istanbul
◼ Grade point averages of all the students in ŞEHİR

Fall 2017 Ch. 1-6

 Random Sampling

◼ Simple random sampling is a procedure in which…

◼ each member of the population is chosen strictly

by chance,
◼ each member of the population is equally likely to

be chosen,
◼ every possible sample of n objects is equally

likely to be chosen.

◼ The resulting sample is called a random sample.

Fall 2017 Ch. 1-7

 Systematic Sampling

◼ For systematic sampling,

◼ assure that the population is arranged in a way that

is not related to the subject of interest

◼ select every j th item from the population where j

is the ratio of the population size to the sample size,

j=N/n
◼ Randomly select a number from 1 to j for the first

item selected

◼ The resulting sample is called a systematic sample.

Fall 2017 Ch. 1-8

 Descriptive and Inferential Statistics

Two branches of statistics:

◼ Descriptive statistics
◼ Graphical and numerical procedures to summarize
and process data.
◼ Inferential statistics
◼ Using data to make predictions, forecasts, and
estimates to assist decision making.

Fall 2017 Ch. 1-9

 Descriptive Statistics

◼ Collect data
◼ e.g., Survey

◼ Present data
◼ e.g., Tables and graphs

◼ Summarize data
◼ e.g., Sample mean =
X i

Fall 2017 Ch. 1-10

 Inferential Statistics

◼ Estimation
◼ e.g., estimate population

mean weight using sample

mean weight.
◼ Hypothesis testing
◼ e.g., test the claim that the

population mean weight is

70 kilograms.
Inference is the process of drawing conclusions
or making decisions about a population based on
sample results

Fall 2017 Ch. 1-11

 Inferential Statistics

◼ By inferential statistics we construct causal

relationships.
◼ Causality starts with a dependent variable. We
investigate the impact of an independent variable on
our dependent variable.

◼ What can be examples?

Fall 2017 Ch. 1-12

 Measurement Levels

Differences between
measurements, true Ratio Data
zero exists
Quantitative
Differences between Data
measurements but Interval Data
no true zero

Ordered Categories
(rankings, order, or Ordinal Data
scaling) Qualitative
Data
Categories (no
ordering or direction) Nominal Data

Fall 2017 Ch. 1-13

 1.2
Classification of Variables

Data in SPSS
Qualitative Quantitative
Data Data

Categorical Numerical

- Its type in the SPSS is ‘string’. - Its type in the SPSS is ‘numeric’.
- The difference of nominal and - Both ratio and interval variables
ordinal matters. are coded as ‘scale’.

Fall 2017 Ch. 1-14

 How we understand?

Measurement Hierarchy Meaningful Meaningful

Levels among numbers? zero?
values?
Ratio Yes Yes Yes
Interval Yes Yes No
Ordinal Yes No No
Nominal No No No
 How we code in SPSS?

Measurement Type in SPSS Measure in SPSS

Levels
Ratio Numeric Scale
Interval Numeric Scale
Ordinal String Ordinal
Nominal String Nominal
 Dummy (binary) variables

• It is a specific type of categorical variables,

independently from being ordinal or nominal.

• Dummy variables include only two values, as one: 1

and zero: 0

• Example: Gender
 What is SPSS?

◼ It is one of the most popular statistical packages which

can perform highly complex data manipulation and
analysis with simple instructions.

◼ It has the most user-friendly interface!

23.10.2017
18
 SPSS - The Windows:

◼ Data Editor: Spreadsheet-

like system for defining,
entering, editing, and
displaying data.
◼ Output: Displays output
and errors.
◼ Syntax: Text editors for
syntax composition, and
provide the opportunity to
write programs.

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 SPSS - The Windows:
SPSS

Data Editor Output Syntax

Variable view

Data view

23.10.2017
20
 Opening SPSS

◼ The default window is the data editor.

◼ There are two sheets in the window:
1. Data view
◼ The place to enter data
◼ Columns: variables
◼ Rows: participants, subjects

2. Variable view
◼ The place to enter variables
◼ List of all variables
◼ Characteristics of all variables

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21
 Variable View

◼ It contains information about the data set that is

stored with the dataset.

◼ Name
◼ The first character
of the variable
name must be
alphabetic
◼ Spaces are
NOT allowed.
◼ Variable names must be unique, and have to be less
than
64 characters.
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 Variable View

◼ Type
◼ The two basic types

of variables that you

will use are numeric
and string.
◼ This column enables

you to specify the

type of variable.

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 Variable View

◼ Width
◼ It allows you to determine the number of characters

SPSS will allow to be entered for the variable

◼ Decimals
◼ The number of decimals

◼ It has to be less than or

equal to 16.

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 Variable View

◼ Label
◼ You can specify the details of the variable

◼ Example; survey question..

◼ Values
◼ This is used to suggest

which numbers represent

which categories when
the variable represents
a category.

23.10.2017
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 Variable Values

What can be possible values of following variables?

• Gender
• Marital status
• Education (The highest educational degree attained?)
• How much you are satisfied with your education spent
in Şehir University?
• Income
• Age
• How many hours you spend in front of TV, per day?
 Variable View

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 Variable View

◼ Missing
◼ It signals to SPSS that data

should be treated as missing,

even though there is some
other numerical code recorded
instead of the data actually
being missing.

◼ Columns
◼ It tells SPSS how wide the column should be for each

variable. (Don't confuse this with width, which indicates

how many digits of the number will be displayed.)

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 Variable View

◼ Align
◼ It indicates whether the information in the Data View

should be left justified, right justified, or centered

◼ Measure
◼ It shows the level of measurement.

◼ SPSS does not differentiate between interval and ratio

levels of measurement, so both of these quantitative

variable types are lumped together as "scale".
◼ But, "nominal" and "ordinal" levels of measurement,

are differentiated.

23.10.2017
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• So, you learnt how to build your data in SPSS
 Statistical Analysis

Three Levels of
Statistical Analysis

Univariate Bivariate Multivariate

◼ Frequency ◼ Crosstabs ◼ Linear Regression
◼ Desciptive ◼ T-Test
statistics, e.g. ◼ Anova
mean ◼ Correlation
◼ Histogram, pie
chart, bar
chart