Statistics for Chemists

STAT-100

Instructor : Sana Muneer

Lecture no. 23
It is not always possible to take measurements on units or objects. Many
characters are expressed in comparative terms such as beauty, smartness,
temperament, . . .. In such cases the units are ranked pertaining to that
particular character instead of taking measurements on them. Sometimes,
the units are also ranked according to their quantitative measure. In these
type of studies, two situations arise, (i) the same set of units is ranked
according two characters, (ii) two judges give ranks to the same set of units
independently pertaining to one character. In both these situations we get
paired ranks for a set of units. For example, the students are ranked
according to their marks in Mathematics and Statistics. Two judges rank the
girls independently in a beauty competition. In all these situations, the usual
Pearson’s correlation coefficient cannot be obtained.
The Pearson correlation coefficient just examined can be used for
interval or ratio level scales. When a variable is measured at no more
than the ordinal level, the researcher must decide whether to treat the
ordinal scale as if it has an interval level scale, or to use a correlation
coefficient designed for an ordinal level scale. There are various types
of correlation coefficients which have been constructed to allow a
researcher to examine the relationship between two variables each of
which have at least an ordinal level of measurement. Some of these are
gamma (the Greek letter γ), various statistics referred to as tau (the
Greek letter τ ) and Spearman’s rho.
Rank correlation
he rank correlation coefficient, is a nonparametric alternative to the
linear correlation coefficient. It was developed by Charles Spearman
(1863–1945) and therefore is also known as the Spearman rank
correlation coefficient. To determine the rank correlation coefficient,
we first rank the x-values among themselves and the y-values among
themselves, and then we compute the linear correlation coefficient of
the rank pairs.
Spearman’s Rank correlation

Spearman’s Rank correlation coefficient is used to identify and test the

strength of a relationship between two sets of data. It is often used as a
statistical method to aid with either proving or disproving a hypothesis.
Spearman’s Rank correlation
Range of Spearman’s Rank correlation
coefficient
This produces a correlation coefficient which has a maximum value of
1, indicating a perfect positive association between the ranks, and a
minimum value of -1, indicating a perfect negative association between
ranks. A value of 0 indicates no association between the ranks for the
observed values of X and Y .
Definition
Example:

Obtain the rank correlation for the following data .

rank correlation

The ranks of some 10 students in two courses Statistics and Economics are given below. Calculate the
rank correlation and interpret.
Ties

Ties are handled as usual: if two or more x-values (or y-values) are tied,
each is assigned the mean of the ranks they would have had if there
were no ties.
Rank Correlation for Tied Ranks
Example
Two members of a selection committee rank eight persons according to their suitability for promotion as follow:
Tied rank