Chapter 6: The What and the

Why of Statistics
• The Research Process
• Asking a Research Question
• The Role of Theory
• Formulating the Hypotheses
– Independent & Dependent Variables: Causality
– Independent & Dependent Variables: Guidelines
• Collecting Data
– Levels of Measurement
– Discrete and Continuous Variables
• Analyzing Data & Evaluating Hypotheses
– Descriptive and Inferential Statistics
• Looking at Social Differences
 The Research Process
Examine a social relationship,
Asking the Research study the relevant literature Formulating the
Question Hypotheses

Contribute Develop a
new evidence research
to literature THEORY design
and begin
again

Evaluating the Analyzing Collecting

Hypotheses Data Data
 Asking a Research Question
What is Empirical Research?

• Research based on information that can be verified by

using our direct experience.
• To answer research questions we cannot rely on
reasoning, speculation, moral judgment, or subjective
preference

• Empirical:
– “Are women paid less than men for the same types of
work?”

• Not Empirical:
– “Is racial equality good for society?”
 The Role of Theory
• A theory is an explanation of the relationship
between two or more observable attributes of
individuals or groups.

• Social scientists use theory to attempt to establish

a link between what we observe (the data) and
our understanding of why certain phenomena are
related to each other in a particular way.
 Formulating the Hypotheses
• Hypotheses:
– Tentative answers to research questions (subject to
empirical verification)
– A statement of a relationship between characteristics that
vary (variables)

• Variable:
– A property of people or objects that takes on two or more
values
– Must include categories that are both exhaustive and
mutually exclusive
 Units of Analysis
The level of social life on which social scientists focus
(individuals, groups). Examples:

• Individual as unit of analysis:

– What are your political views?
• Family as unit of analysis:
– Who does the housework?
• Organization as unit of analysis:
– What is the gender composition?
• City as unit of analysis:
– What was the crime rate last year?
 Types of Variables
• Dependent The variable to be
explained (the “effect”).

• Independent The variable expected to

account for (the “cause”
of) the dependent variable.

IV  DV
 Cause and Effect Relationships
Cause and effect relationships between variables
are not easy to infer in the social sciences.
Causal relationships must meet three criteria:

1. The cause has to precede the effect in time

2. There has to be an empirical relationship
between the cause and effect
3. This relationship cannot be explained by other
factors
 Guidelines for Independent
and Dependent Variables
1. The dependent variable is always the property
you are trying to explain; it is always the object
of the research.
2. The independent variable usually occurs earlier
in time than the dependent variables.
3. The independent variable is often seen as
influencing, directly or indirectly, the dependent
variable.
 Example 1
People who attend church regularly are more likely to oppose
abortion than people who do not attend church regularly.
• Identify the IV and DV
– independent variable: Church attendance
– dependent variable: Attitudes toward abortion
• Identify possible control variables
Gender Age
Religious affiliation (Catholic, Baptist, Islamic…)
Political party identification
• Are the causal arguments sound?
– e.g. does party id affect abortion views or vice versa?
 Example 2
The number of books read to a child per day positively
affects a child’s word recognition.
• Identify the IV and DV
– independent variable: Number of books read
– dependent variable: Word recognition

• Identify possible control variables

Gender Older siblings
Health status Birth order
• Are the causal arguments sound?
– Most likely. It is hard to construct an argument where a 36
month old child affects the number of books his or her
parent reads to him/her.
 Collecting Data
Examine a social relationship,
Ask the Research study the relevant literature Formulating the
Question Hypotheses

Contribute Develop a
new evidence research
to literature THEORY design
and begin
again

Evaluating the Analyzing Collecting

Hypotheses Data
Data
 Collecting Data

Researchers must decide three things:

– How to measure the variables of interest

– How to select the cases for the research
– What kind of data collection techniques to
use
 Levels of Measurement
Not every statistical operation can be used
with every variable. The type of statistical
operations we employ will depend on how our
variables are measured.

Nominal
Ordinal
Interval-Ratio
Nominal Level of Measurement
Numbers or other symbols are assigned to a set of
categories for the purpose of naming, labeling, or
classifying the observations.

• Examples:
Political Party (Democrat, Republican)
Religion (Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant)
Race (African American, Latino, Native
American)
Ordinal Level of Measurement
Nominal variables that can be ranked from
low to high.

• Example: Social Class

Upper Class
Middle Class
Working Class
 Interval-Ratio Level of
Measurement
Variables where measurements for all cases
are expressed in the same units. (Variables
with a natural zero point, such as height and
weight, are called ratio variables.)

• Examples:
Age
Income
SAT scores
 Cumulative Property of Levels
of Measurement
• Variables that can be measured at the interval-
ratio level of measurement can also be measured
at the ordinal and nominal levels.
• However, variables that are measured at the
nominal and ordinal levels cannot be measured at
higher levels.
Different or Higher or How Much
Level Equivalent Lower Higher
Nominal Yes No No
Ordinal Yes Yes No
Interval-ratio Yes Yes Yes
Cumulative Property of Levels
of Measurement
There is one exception, though
• Dichotomous variables
– Because there are only two possible values for a
dichotomy, we can measure it at the ordinal or the
interval-ratio level (e.g., gender)
– There is no way to get them out of order
– This gives the dichotomy more power than other
nominal level variables
 Discrete and Continuous Variables
• Discrete variables: variables that have a
minimum-sized unit of measurement, which
cannot be sub-divided
– Example: the number children per family

• Continuous variables: variables that, in

theory, can take on all possible numerical
values in a given interval
– Example: length
 Analyzing Data:
Descriptive and Inferential Statistics
• Population: The total set of individuals, objects,
groups, or events in which the researcher is interested.
• Sample: A relatively small subset selected from a
population.
• Descriptive statistics: Procedures that help us
organize and describe data collected from either a
sample or a population.
• Inferential statistics: The logic and procedures
concerned with making predictions or inferences
about a population from observations and analyses of a
sample.
 Analyze Data & Evaluate Hypotheses
Examine a social relationship,
Asking the Research study the relevant literature Formulating the
Question Hypotheses

Contribute Develop a
new evidence research
to literature THEORY design
and begin
again

Evaluating the Analyzing Collecting

Data
Hypotheses Data
 Begin the Process Again...
Examine a social relationship,
Asking the Research study the relevant literature Formulating the
Question Hypotheses

Contribute Develop a
new evidence research
to literature THEORY design
and begin
again

Evaluating the Analyzing Collecting

Hypotheses Data Data