POL SCI 3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: Ordinal Data, Frequency Distribution, Statistical Inference
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Political science research methods: ch11 making sense of. Verifying empirical claims requires a more systematic approach, statistics can play a role. Data analysis encompasses (1) data exploration (2) making inferences about. Hypotheses (3) describe and explain political phenomena (this chapter covers the first subject) First step is the arrangement of the observed measurements into a data matrix an array of rows and columns that stores observed values of: rows hold the data for each case or unit of analysis variables. To go from raw data to meaningful conclusions, summarize and explore info the matrix: summarize with tables/ single number or range of numbers/ graphs. Different statistical procedures assume different levels of measurement. If choose to present only the valid responses, tell audience which categories have been excluded and the number of cases in each considerable. For these reasons, turn to descriptive stats number that describes certain characteristics properties of a batch of numbers.