Shared Flashcard Set

Details

Advanced Statistics
for Social Sciences
46
Other
Graduate
12/31/2009

Additional Other Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
law of parsimony
Definition
include the important predictors in your model without attempting to add every explanation
Term
Occam's razor
Definition
the simplest explanation is usually the best one
Term
quantitative variable
Definition
those in which the coding of the variable is a close reflection of their meaning
Term
continuous variable
Definition
(interval) can assume any real value, i.e. temperature
Term
discrete variable
Definition
(count data) can only assume integer values, cannot be divided into fractions, i.e. number of children
Term
qualitative variables
Definition
those whose numerical representation in the data set simply classifies mutually exclusive values of the variable, but those numerical representations are substantially less meaningful than what is found with quantitative variables
Term
ordinal variables
Definition
qualitative variables in which the numbers represent a hierarchy of values. i.e., attitudes or grade in school
Term
nominal variables
Definition
qualitative variables in which the numeric values assigned to values are merely placeholders, i.e. race
Term
dichotomous variables
Definition
(binary variables) variables in which there are two and only two possible outcomes
Term
dummy variables
Definition
binary variables that have been coded with 0 and 1
Term
indicies
Definition
new variable created by adding up a number of variables together
Term
scale
Definition
new variable created by combining (sometimes weighting) variables to create something new altogether, i.e. socioeconomic status
Term
factor
Definition
underlying construct of the components in a scale
Term
latent variable
Definition
indirectly measured construct, i.e. socioeconomic status
Term
multicolinearity
Definition
a condition created when two or more variables measure the same underlying construct
Term
standardization
Definition
refers to any one of a number of mathematical techniques for transforming variables so that they are in a single metric
Term
internal reliability
Definition
2 or more variables are measuring the same thing (score on one variable should predict the score on another variable0
Term
Cronbach's Alpha
Definition
measures the internal consistency of several variables. Alpha reliability ranges from 0 to 1, where 1 is perfect internal reliability and 0 is the variables do not measure the same thing at all. (alphas greater than .7 are generally considered to have enough internal relaibility that scaling is warranted
Term
exploratory factor analysis (purpose)
Definition
1) can be used to see if a single variable can be used to replace multiple variables
2) can determine if several variables can be scaled together
3) detect clusters of variables
Term
3 types of factor analysis
Definition
1) Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)
2) Principal component analysis (PCA)
3) Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)
Term
Pearson's correlation coefficient
Definition
used to understand how variables are related to each other; measured from -1 to 1 (negative number=negative association; positive number=positive association)
Term
factor matrix
Definition
produced by EFA; measures the combination of the linear composites and the structure coefficients
Term
factor loadings
Definition
in a factor matrix, the amount of weight you would give a variable if you were going to put it in a scale
Term
3 stages of factor analysis
Definition
1) Selection
2) Extraction
3) Rotation
Term
Selection stage of factor analysis
Definition
determine the number of factors that are meaningfully represented by the variables
Term
eigenvalue
Definition
in factor analysis, indicates the variance accounted for by each underlying factor
Term
Kaiser- Guttman rule
Definition
in selection of FA, the total number of factors represented by a set of variables is equal to the number of eigenvalues greater than 1
Term
scree plot
Definition
in selection stage of FA, a graph with the factors on the x axis and the eigenvalues on the y-axis. The scree that occurs after the curve bends is simply error variation and does not represent true factors
Term
Extraction
Definition
2nd stage of FA, the process by which we account for variance
Term
best method for FA extraction
Definition
principal axis factoring with iterated communalities (least squares)- best approach, especially if smaller sample size
Term
Rotation
Definition
3rd stage of FA, extremely complex mathematical procedure that requires you to think in crazy dimensions. Basically, it rotates the axis to place it nearer to the data points
Term
Orthogonal
Definition
Type of rotation in FA; assumes factors are uncorrelated to each other
Term
Oblique
Definition
type of rotation in FA; assumes correaltion
Term
Rule of thumb when determining which variables load on which factors in FA
Definition
1) factor should have at least 4 variables
2) each variable should load close to or higher than +/- .5
Term
kurtosis
Definition
a measure of whether the data are peaked or flat relative to normal distribution
Term
summary statistics
Definition
mean and standard deviation
Term
inferential statistics
Definition
show bivariate differences of means or proportions
Term
which inferential statistics to use if 1)using percents or proportions
2)means
Definition
1) Pearson's Chi-Square
2)Student's t-test or an f-test derived from ANOVA
Term
indicator variable
Definition
how most nominal and ordinal data are entered into models; a dummy variable is created for each category of the variable
Term
Student's t-test
Definition
used to compare 2 (and ONLY 2) means to see if they are statistically different from each other.
Most often use the two-tailed t-test where Ho= means are equivalent and Ha= means are different. First, must test for equal variance. p< .05 means we are 95% sure that the difference in means observed is not simply due to sampling error.
Term
Robust test for equal variance
Definition
used before a t-test can be conducted to determine whether the two groups have equal variance on the variable under question. Want p > .05
Term
Levene's test for equal variance
Definition
most common used robust test for equality of variance; (w0) ONLY indicates whether you have equal variance, not if you have statistically significant differences of means. Ho= equal variance; ha= unequal varaince. want p> .05
Term
ANOVA f-test
Definition
(Analysis of variance f-test): used when comparing the means of three or more groups. One-way ANOVA- ho= all means are equal; Ha= at least two groups have different means. If p is significant, then must conduct a post-hoc test
Term
3 types of post-hoc tests
Definition
Used after geting a significant p value in a one-way ANOVA.
1) Bonferroni
2) Scheffe
3) Sidak
Term
Barlett's test for equal variance
Definition
Addresses the major limiting assumption of ANOVA which assumes that the population variances are equal. Ho= equal varainces, Ha= unequal variances. Pant p > .05 so we fail to reject the Ho
Term
Correlation
Definition
a statistical technique used to measure and describe a relationship between two continuous variables.
Supporting users have an ad free experience!