Data Analysis Tools

This session starts where the Data Management and Visualization course left off. Now that you have selected a data set and research question, managed your variables of interest and visualized their relationship graphically, we are ready to test those relationships statistically. The first group of videos describe the process of hypothesis testing which you will use throughout this course to test relationships between different kinds of variables (quantitative and categorical). Next, we show you how to test hypotheses in the context of Analysis of Variance (when you have one quantitative variable and one categorical variable). Your task will be to write a program that manages any additional variables you may need and runs and interprets an Analysis of Variance test. Note that if your research question does not include one quantitative variable, you can use one from your data set just to get some practice with the tool. If your research question does not include a categorical variable, you can categorize one that is quantitative.

This session shows you how to test hypotheses in the context of a Chi-Square Test of Independence (when you have two categorical variables). Your task will be to write a program that manages any additional variables you may need and runs and interprets a Chi-Square Test of Independence. Note that if your research question only includes quantitative variables, you can categorize those just to get some practice with the tool.

This session shows you how to test hypotheses in the context of a Pearson Correlation (when you have two quantitative variables). Your task will be to write a program that manages any additional variables you may need and runs and interprets a correlation coefficient. Note that if your research question only includes categorical variables, you can choose other variables from your data set just to get some practice with the tool.

In this session, we will discuss the basic concept of statistical interaction (also known as moderation). In statistics, moderation occurs when the relationship between two variables depends on a third variable. The effect of a moderating variable is often characterized statistically as an interaction; that is, a third variable that affects the direction and/or strength of the relation between your explanatory (X) and response (Y) variable. Your task will be to test your own research question in the context of one or more potential moderating variables.