Managerial

Statistics
DR. LEONARDO C. MEDINA, JR.
 Chapter Two

Graphical
Descriptive Techniques 1

2.2
Introduction & Re-cap…
Descriptive statistics involves arranging, summarizing, and
presenting a set of data in such a way that useful information
is produced.
Statistics

Data Information

Its methods make use of graphical techniques and numerical

descriptive measures (such as averages) to summarize and
present the data.

2.3
Populations & Samples

Population Sample

Subset

The graphical & tabular methods presented here apply to both entire
populations and samples drawn from populations.

2.4
Definitions…
A variable is some characteristic of a population or sample.
E.g. student grades.
Typically denoted with a capital letter: X, Y, Z…

The values of the variable are the range of possible values

for a variable.
E.g. student marks (0..100)

Data are the observed values of a variable.

E.g. student marks: {67, 74, 71, 83, 93, 55, 48}

2.5
Types of Data & Information
Data (at least for purposes of Statistics) fall into three main
groups:

Interval Data
Nominal Data
Ordinal Data

2.6
Interval Data…
Interval data
• Real numbers, i.e. heights, weights, prices, etc.
• Also referred to as quantitative or numerical.

Arithmetic operations can be performed on Interval Data,

thus its meaningful to talk about 2*Height, or Price + $1, and
so on.

2.7
Nominal Data…
Nominal Data
• The values of nominal data are categories.
E.g. responses to questions about marital status, coded
as:
Single = 1, Married = 2, Divorced = 3, Widowed = 4

These data are categorical in nature; arithmetic operations

don’t make any sense (e.g. does Widowed ÷ 2 = Married?!)

Nominal data are also called qualitative or categorical.

2.8
Ordinal Data…
Ordinal Data appear to be categorical in nature, but their
values have an order; a ranking to them:

E.g. College course rating system:

poor = 1, fair = 2, good = 3, very good = 4, excellent = 5

While its still not meaningful to do arithmetic on this data

(e.g. does 2*fair = very good?!), we can say things like:
excellent > poor or fair < very good
That is, order is maintained no matter what numeric values
are assigned to each category.
2.9
Calculations for Types of Data
As mentioned above,

• All calculations are permitted on interval data.

• Only calculations involving a ranking process are allowed for

ordinal data.

• No calculations are allowed for nominal data, save counting the

number of observations in each category.

This lends itself to the following “hierarchy of data”…

2.10
Hierarchy of Data…
Interval
Values are real numbers.
All calculations are valid.
Data may be treated as ordinal or nominal.

Ordinal
Values must represent the ranked order of the data.
Calculations based on an ordering process are valid.
Data may be treated as nominal but not as interval.

Nominal
Values are the arbitrary numbers that represent categories.
Only calculations based on the frequencies of occurrence are valid.
Data may not be treated as ordinal or interval.

2.11
Graphical & Tabular Techniques for Nominal Data…

The only allowable calculation on nominal data is to count

the frequency of each value of the variable.

We can summarize the data in a table that presents the

categories and their counts called a frequency distribution.

A relative frequency distribution lists the categories and the

proportion with which each occurs.

2.12
Example 2.1 Work Status in the GSS 2012 Survey
[GSS2012*] In Chapter 1 we briefly introduced the General Social Survey.
In the 2012 survey respondents were asked the following question.
Last week were you working full time, part time, going to school, keeping
house, or what? The responses were
1. Working full time
2. Working part time
3. Temporarily not working
4. Unemployed, laid off
5. Retired
6. School
7. Keeping house
8. Other
The responses were recorded using the codes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8,
respectively.
2.13
Frequency and Relative Frequency Distributions

Work Status Code Frequency Relative Frequency (%)

Working full-time 1 912 46.2
Working part-time 2 226 11.5
Temporarily not working 3 40 2.0
Unemployed, laid off 4 104 5.3
Retired 5 357 18.1
School 6 70 3.5
Keeping house 7 210 10.6
Other 8 54 2.7

2.14
Nominal Data (Frequency)
Bar Chart

1000
912
900

800

700

600

500

400 357

300
226 210
200
104
100 70 54
40
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
WRKSTAT

Bar Charts are often used to display frequencies…

2.15
Nominal Data (Relative Frequency)
Pie Chart
8, 2.7%
7, 10.6%

6, 3.5%

1, 46.2%

5, 18.1%

4, 5.3%

3, 2.0%

2, 11.5%

Pie Charts show relative frequencies…

2.16
Nominal Data
Bar Chart
It all the same information,
1000 912
900
800
700
600
(based on the same data).
500
400
357 Just different presentation.
300 226 210
200 104
40 70 54
100
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
WRKSTAT

Pie Chart
8, 2.7%

7,
6, 3.5%
10.6%

1, 46.2%
5, 18.1%

4, 5.3% 2, 11.5%
3, 2.0%

2.17
Describing the Relationship between Two Nominal Variables
To describe the relationship between two nominal variables, we must
remember that we are permitted only to determine the frequency of the
values. As a first step we need to produce a cross-classification table,
which lists the frequency of each combination of the values of the two
variables

2.18
Example 2.4 Newspaper Readership Survey
In a major North American city there are four competing
newspapers: the Globe and Mail (G&M), Post, Sun, and
Star. To help design advertising campaigns, the advertising
managers of the newspapers need to know which segments
of the newspaper market are reading their papers. A survey
was conducted to analyze the relationship between
newspapers read and occupation. A sample of newspaper
readers was asked to report which newspaper they read:
Globe and Mail (1) Post (2), Star (3), Sun (4), and to
indicate whether they were blue-collar worker (1), white-
collar worker (2), or professional (3). The responses are
stored in Xm02-04 using the codes. Some of the data are
listed here.

2.19
Example 2.4
Reader Occupation Newspaper
1 2 2
2 1 4
3 2 1
. . . .
. . . .
352 3 2
353 1 3
354 2 3
Determine whether the two nominal variables are related.

2.20
Cross-Classification Table of Frequencies
Newspaper
Occupation G&M Post Star Sun Total
Blue collar 27 18 38 37 120
White collar 29 43 21 15 108
Professional 33 51 22 20 126
Total 89 112 81 72 354

2.21
Row Relative Frequencies
Newspaper
Occupation G&M Post Star Sun Total
Blue collar .23 .15 .32 .31 1.00
White collar .27 .40 .19 .14 1.00
Professional .26 .40 .17 .16 1.00
Total .25 .32 .23 .20 1.00

2.22
Graphing the Relationship between 2 Nominal Variables

60
Post
50
Post
Star Sun
40
G&M
G&M G&M
30
Star Star Sun
Post
20 Sun

10

0
Blue collar White collar Professional

Occupation

There are only a few telephone

bills in the middle range.

2.23
INTERPRET
If the two variables are unrelated, the patterns exhibited in
the bar charts should be approximately the same. If some
relationship exists, then some bar charts will differ from
others.

The graphs tell us the same story as did the table. The shapes
of the bar charts for occupations 2 and 3 (White-collar and
Professional) are very similar. Both differ considerably from
the bar chart for occupation 1 (Blue-collar).

2.24