Prepared by:

Assoc. Prof. Dr Bahaman Abu Samah

Department of Professional Development and Continuing Education
Faculty of Educational Studies
Universiti Putra Malaysia
Serdang

At the end of this session, each student should be

able to:
1. Define statistics,
2. Describe basic statistical concepts,
3. Understand the four scales of measurements,
and
4. Match statistics to the appropriate scale of
measurement

 As a tool in making decisions:

Research objectives

Research hypotheses
Statistics as a process to:
Collect

DATA
Analyze
Present

Interpret

Make
informed
decisions

Problem Statement
Research Design/
Methodology
Population &
Sample
Instrumentation
Data Collection
Data Analysis &
Presentation

Interpretation &
Reporting

A collection of tools and techniques that are used

to convert data into meaningful information.

Data

Statistical Tools
Descriptive
Inferential

Role of Statistics

Information

Depends on:
1. Purpose
Descriptive Inferential
2. Assumption on normality
Parametric Nonparametric

3. Number of Variables
Univariate Bivariate
Multivariate

Population

Parameters

Comprises ALL
elements individual
or objects

Sample
A sub-set of
population

Statistics

Measures

Parameter

Statistic

Number of cases

Mean

Variance

s2

Standard deviation

Correlation coefficient

1. Probability samples
Simple random samples
Stratified random samples
Systematic samples
Cluster samples
2. Non-probability samples
Convenient samples
Purposive samples

Characteristics studied that assume different values for

different elements
Demography:
Gender
Job tenure
Occupational status

Job characteristics:
Work condition
Job demand
Job control

Quality of
work life

Perceived quality of
ICT facilities
Independent
Variables

Dependent
Variable

Research Conceptual Framework

OR
X

Demography:
Gender

Mediator

Moderator

Job tenure
Occupational status

Job characteristics:
Work condition
Job demand
Job control

Career
commitment

Quality of
work life

Intervening
Variable

Dependent
Variable

Perceived quality of
ICT facilities
Independent
Variables

Research Conceptual Framework

1. Quantitative or Continuous Variables

A variable that can be measured numerically
(Numeric)
Can be classified into:
Discrete variable
Continuous variable
2. Qualitative or Categorical Variable
A variable that cannot assume a numerical
value but can be classified into 2 categories
(Alpha numeric)

Basic elements used in statistical analysis

Variable

Data

Primary

Secondary

1. Experiments
2. Telephone survey
3. Mail questionnaires
4. Online questionnaires

5. Direct observation
6. Personal interviews

Nominal
The lowest scale
Numbers assigned to identify attributes
No order/sequence

Ordinal
Numbers assigned in ranking order
Arrange from lowest to highest or vice versa
Interval
Arbitrary zero (no absolute zero)
Zero does not represent absence of the characteristic

Ratio
The highest scale
True zero (represents absence of the characteristic)

RATIO
INTERVAL
ORDINAL
NOMINAL

Absolute ZERO
Arbitrary ZERO

Sequence of ATTRIBUTES
List of ATTRIBUTES

(For Categorical Nominal and Ordinal)

Variable

Ethnicity

Attributes

Malay

Chinese

Indian

Values

(Two-step questions)

Nominal
Alpha
Numeric

Sequence?

Ordinal
Data

What is the
data type?

Interval
Numeric

Zero?

Ratio

Exercise:
What are the scales of measurement for these
variables?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Program of study
Speed (km/hr)
Motivation scores
Income categories
Number of SMS received
Marital status
Quality of work life scores
Socio-economic status
Perception scores
Membership status

Nominal
Ratio
Interval
Ordinal
Ratio
Nominal
Interval
Ordinal
Interval
Nominal

Describe Phenomenon

Frequency/Percent
MCT
Comparison
MD

Major Research
Concerns

between Groups

T-Test
ANOVA
Mann-Whitney
Kruskal Wallis

Relationship
between Variables

Chi-square
Spearman rank correlation
Pearson PM correlation
Regression Analysis

Data
type

Question

Nonmetric

# Groups/
variables

Scale

Multiple
categories

Statistics

Chi-Square

Two groups
DATA

Independence

Independent

Ind. t-test

Dependent

Paired t-test

Differences

One-way ANOVA
Independent
Factorial ANOVA

Multiple groups
or variables
Dependent
Metric

Two
variables
Relationships
Multiple
variables

RepeatedMeasure ANOVA

Metric

Pearsons r

Rank

Spearmans r

Dichotomous

Point biserial
Multiple
regression

 Scales of Measurement
Statistics

Dependent

Independent

T-Test

Interval/Ratio

Nominal/Ordinal (k=2)

ANOVA

Interval/Ratio

Nominal/Ordinal (k>2)

Chi-square

Nominal/Ordinal

Nominal/Ordinal

(At least one of the scales is Nominal)

Spearman Rho

Rank Ordered
Interval/Ratio

Rank ordered
Interval/Ratio (x Normal)

Pearson Correlation

Interval/Ratio

Interval/Ratio

Regression

Interval/Ratio

Interval/Ratio

Statistic
1. Purpose

2. Requirements
3. Assumptions
4. Run the analysis in SPSS
5. Present results of the analysis
6. Interpretation