Chapter 12: Quantitative Data Analysis: Descriptive Statistics

Chapter 12: Quantitative
Data Analysis
Descriptive Statistics
Quantitative Analysis
This is the process of presenting and
interpreting numerical data.
The Results section of papers
including quantitative data analysis
often containdescriptivestatistics
andinferentialstatistics.
Descriptive statisticsinclude
measures of central tendency
(averages - mean, median and
mode) and measures of variability
about the average (range and
standard deviation). These give the
reader a 'picture' of the data
collected and used in the research
project.
Descriptive or Summary Statistics

Quantitative research may well generate masses of
data. For example, a comparatively small study that
distributes 200 questionnaires with maybe 20 items on
each can generate potentially 4000 items of raw data.
To make sense of this data it needs to be summarised
in some way, so that the reader has an idea of the
typical values in the data, and how these vary. To do
this researchers use descriptive or summary statistics:
they describe or summarise the data, so that the
reader can construct a mental picture of the data and
the people, events or objects they relate to.
Types of descriptive statistics

All quantitative studies will have
some descriptive statistics, as well as
frequency tables. For example,
sample size, maximum and minimum
values, averages and measures of
variation of the data about the
average. In many studies this is a
first step, prior to more complex
inferential analysis.
Quantitative analysis involves the

examination across cases of one
variable at a time. There are three
major characteristics of a single
variable that we tend to look at:
the distribution
the central tendency
the dispersion
The Distribution
The distribution is a summary of the frequency
of individual values or ranges of values for a
variable. The simplest distribution would list
every value of a variable and the number of
persons who had each value. For instance, a
typical way to describe the distribution of
college students is by year in college, listing the
number or percent of students at each of the
four years. Or, we describe gender by listing the
number or percent of males and females.
In these cases, the variable has few enough

values that we can list each one and summarize
how many sample cases had the value. But what
do we do for a variable like income or GPA? With
these variables there can be a large number of
possible values, with relatively few people having
each one. In this case, we group the raw scores
into categories according to ranges of values. For
instance, we might look at GPA according to the
letter grade ranges. Or, we might group income
into four or five ranges of income values.
Table 1. Frequency distribution table.
One of the most common ways to

describe a single variable is with
afrequency distribution. Depending
on the particular variable, all of the data
values may be represented, or you may
group the values into categories first
(e.g., with age, price, or temperature
variables, it would usually not be sensible
to determine the frequencies for each
value.
Rather, the value are grouped into

ranges and the frequencies
determined.). Frequency distributions
can be depicted in two ways, as a
table or as a graph. Table 1 shows an
age frequency distribution with five
categories of age ranges defined.
The same frequency distribution can
be depicted in a graph as shown in
Figure 2. This type of graph is often
Table 2. Frequency distribution bar chart.
Distributions may also be displayed

using percentages. For example, you
could use percentages to describe
the:
percentage of people in different
income levels
percentage of people in different age
ranges
percentage of people in different
ranges of standardized test scores
Works Cited
Quantitative Analysis. (n.d.). Retrieved January 8,
2016, from University of The West England:
http://learntech.uwe.ac.uk/da/Default.aspx?
pageid=1423
Trochim, W. M. (20, October 2006). Descriptive
Statistics. Retrieved January 8, 2016, from Social
Research Methods:
http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/statdesc.
php

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Chapter 12: Quantitative

Descriptive or Summary Statistics

Types of descriptive statistics

Quantitative analysis involves the

In these cases, the variable has few enough

Table 1. Frequency distribution table.

One of the most common ways to

Rather, the value are grouped into

Table 2. Frequency distribution bar chart.

Distributions may also be displayed

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