Õ Õ
  Õ

ÕÕ

V In the "wheel" of the research process, analyzing

the research data comes as stage number four
following the data collection stage. Depending
upon the type of data collected, an appropriate
technique of analysis is used. The first two
lecture (numbers 9 and 10) focus on quantitative
analysis of the data, while the third lecture
(number 11) focuses on qualitative analysis of
data.
   Õ
Õ 

Inferential statistics permits generalization from

samples to populations. It has to do with hypothesis
testing. Sampling error and sample bias are the two
main problems that faces the challenge of
generalizing from samples to populations.

V Sampling error involves the role of chance

in deciding on the findings or results, and
it results from taking small samples from
large populations.
V Sample bias involves samples that do not
accurately represent the population.
V Inferential statistics deals with the sampling error
and NOT with the sample bias. They are used to
estimate the role of chance in the findings, such
as when testing for the reliability of differences
between groups and deciding whether the
difference is a significant finding or a result of
chance only. The other way to check that chance
had nothing to do with the findings, is to repeat
the study several times, which can become
awkward, time-consuming and impractical.
 

    



In your research project, you are usually interested in testing some
sort of a hypothesis. You try to confirm the research hypothesis
(sometimes called working hypothesis), which is referred to in
statistics as the alternative hypothesis (referring to an alternative
to the null hypothesis). Confirming the alternative hypothesis (or the
research hypothesis itself) is not done directly. Instead, confirming
the alternative hypothesis is done by testing (accepting or rejecting)
the null hypothesis.

V §he alternative hypothesis indicates some sort of a

relationship between variables.
V §he null hypothesis indicates NO relationship
between the same variables.
 §
 §
  § I V
Y P O §
 I  I   §§
 I 
P O  I § I V
§
    C   § § §


I   

 I F F

 C

§


   O P  O  § § §

I  
P
 
 § V  I   

I   V
  I   I F I C   §

F F
C § O  §

P
 
 § V  I   
.

V §o confirm the existence of a significant

relationship between variables or a
significant difference between groups,
you have to confidently 

C§ the null
hypothesis, in other words, to say that
the difference or significance is O§ due
to chance. If the null hypothesis is
accepted, that means that there
is O difference between groups
or O effect of the independent variable
over the dependent variable, the reason
for any observed difference will be
attributed solely to chance.
V §he researcher usually decides on the level of significance he or she is
willing to accept or reject the null hypothesis. In social sciences .05 or
.01 level of significance is often used. §his is referred to as p<.05 or
p<.01. §he numbers indicate a probability of 5 in 100 or 1 in 100
respectively.

V If the odds (likelihood) that the difference in measurements that is due

to chance is less than 5 in 100 or 1 in 100 respectively, then one would
decide that the odds are small hence reject the null hypothesis (i.e.
there is a significant finding and it is not merely a result of chance).

V If the difference is likely due to chance more than 5 times in a 100 or 1

time in a 100 respectively, then one would have no confidence in the
findings therefore the null hypothesis is accepted indicating that the
difference is probably due to chance and not due to the independent
variable. §esting the null hypothesis is done by performing a suitable
inferential statistical test on the data.
V In other words, p<.05 for example means that
only 5% error will be acceptable, hence the
results must be 95% true. Reporting the results is
done by stating that the finding is "ñ
ñ 

ñ 
 " at p<.01 for example. This means
that the finding is NOT due to chance, i.e. the
null hypothesis is rejected and the research
hypothesis is accepted.

V Õ finding is statistically significant has nothing to

do with it being practically important. It simply
means that statistics show that chance was not a
factor (high probability that it was not a factor) in
determining the finding.
   Õ
Õ Õ



V The researcher has to decide on a suitable

statistical test to check for the significance of
the findings. The selection of the most
suitable test depends upon several factors
mainly the type of data, the distribution of
data, and the nature of the research
question or hypothesis.


 
 
 

§

§ 

 §§  §  § §
§ 

§   




§  § §§ 
 §

 
 


 
 §

 
 
 §  
§



 § 
  § 
§§


§ 


 §

§ §  
 § 

§   
§ §§ 
§ §



§§



 
 

§
O§ COO §
§ I §
Ê



( POO C
 I ). I § §
§

§
 §

P§§
 OF §
C§  
 § ( CO § I
C§
OI
 ) IFF
 
IY FO
§
O  


P
C§
 Y C C
.
  
   

x
Ê

Ê 


he critical region (or rejection

region) is the set of all values
of the test statistic that cause
us to reject the null
hypothesis.

x




ÊÊ  

he significance level (denoted
by ë¦is the probability that the
test statistic will fall in the
critical region when the null
hypothesis is actually true.
Êommon choices for ë are
0.05, 0.01, and 0.10.
x
 Ê

Ê

 critical value is any value separating
the critical region (where we reject the
H0) from the values of the test statistic
that does not lead to rejection of the
null hypothesis, the sampling
distribution that applies, and the
significance level ë

x
  
 ,

H 
 ,
   
  

x
   
  
Y0: =
ë is divided equally between
the two tails of the critical
Y1:  region

Means less than or greater than

x

H 
  
Y0: =
Y1: >
Points ight

x
    
  
Y0: =
Y1: <

Points eft

x
 m

he m value (or p value or probability
value) is the probability of getting a
value of the test statistic that is

 

 as the one
representing the sample data,
assuming that the null hypothesis is
true. he null hypothesis is rejected if
the m value is very small, such as 0.05
or less. 
 Ê Ê


 H YPH
  


e always test the null

hypothesis.

1. eject the Y0

2. ail to reject the Y0

x
  ÊÊP
 

  Ê
A ome texts use oaccept the null hypothesis.

A e are not proving the null hypothesis.

A he sample evidence is not strong enough to warrant

rejection (such as not enough evidence to convict a
suspect).
 ecision Êriterion
raditional methodÎ
w 

Y if the test statistic falls
within the critical region.
ail to  

Yif the test statistic
does not fall within the critical region.

 ecision Êriterion
m value methodÎ
w 

Y if m value P ë (where ë is the
significance level, such as 0.05).
ail to  

Yif m value > ë.


 MP :


 P



Y
  ññ ñ 
 Î
Va population mean or mean difference (paired data)

Vthe difference between means of two populations

Vthe difference between two population proportions

§ 
 ñ
1. Inference is only valid if the sample is representative
of the population for the question of interest.
2. Hypotheses and conclusions apply to the larger
population(s) represented by the sample(s).
3. If the distribution of a quantitative variable is highly
skewed, consider analyzing the median rather than
the mean ʹ called 


  ñ.

  
   

ñY
  ññ§ ñ

   

 
 
  ñ ñ
     ññ


 ñ
  
ñ
   

 




 ñ 
ñ
ñ 
 ññ  
  ñññ     6

 

       ñ ññ
ñ 

ñ 
 
ñ   6
 
 
   ñ       
ñ 
.

Type I and Type II Errors


        
  
   


V Type I and Type II errors are two well-known concepts

in quality engineering, which are related to hypothesis
testing. Often engineers are confused by these two
concepts simply because they have many different
names. We list a few of them here.
V Type I errors are also calledÎ
V 1) Producer͛s risk
2) False alarm
3) False negative
4) error
V Type II errors are also calledÎ
V 1) Consumer͛s risk
2) Misdetection
3) False positive
4) error
V §

§
 ñ
   
ñ 
  ññ ñ 
Õ Type I error () is the probability of rejecting a true
null hypothesis.

Õ Type II error () is the probability of failing to reject a

false null hypothesis.

Or simplyÎ

Õ Type I error () is the probability of telling you things

are wrong, given that things are correct.

Õ Type II error () is the probability of telling you

things are correct, given that things are wrong.