Research Methods: Choosing a statistical test

Factors Affecting Choice of Statistical Test

• Need to justify your choice of statistical test.
• Need to identify:

1) It is a correlation or test of difference (experiment) or Correlational.

2) If it uses independant groups or repeated measures.

3) Or if it uses nominal data.

Nominal Data = Chi Squared.

Relationship/Correlation = Spearman's Rho

Independant Groups = Mann-Whitney

Repeated Measures/Matched Pairs = Wilcoxon

Level of Measurement:

• Two key levels of measurement to understand are nomial and ordinal.
• Chi-Squared is used for nomial data
• All other tests require at least ordinal data.
• This means they can be used for ordinal interval and ratio data.

Nominal: The data is put into categories or just named.

Data that is at least ordinal:

• Ordinal: Information or scores are…