PSY 317 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: External Validity, Level Of Measurement
Document Summary
Used to describe main features of the data set. Examples make generalizations based on your sample to the population. In both types of statistics, we are interested in variables. Variables a characteristic of a person or object that can vary; something that can be one value or another value. The different values a variable can have are called levels. If something does not have different possible levels, it is not a variable. Numeric, or quantitative variables differ in amount. Qualitative, or categorical variables differ in type, rather than amount. In order to address statistical questions, variables must be measured. Measurement assigning a number to a level. The type of measurement you use has implications for the conclusions you can make about your data. Possible levels should be exhaustive and mutually exclusive. Numbers are simply a matter of preference, simply need to remember which number is assigned to which level of the variable.
