Analysing data

• what is central limit theorum?


  The Central Limit Theorem states that the sampling distribution of the mean of any independent, random variable will be approximately normally distributed, regardless of the shape of the original population distribution.
• how does the language change for normal sampling distributions from population distributions?


  standard deviation becomes standard error
• what is degrees of freedom?


  n- 1 (1 below the number of participants)
• how should we interpret a confidence interval?


  our sample is one of the 95% producing confidence intervals that contain the population value, then the population value for the estimate of interest falls somewhere between the lower limit and the upper limit of the interval we’ve computed for our sample.
• what is the quantative research process in order?


  -generate question

  -define hyptheses

  -define alpha

  -calculate stats power

  -get data and calc test statistic

  -accept/reject h0
• why is surprising data not expected/common?


  should be able to predict from prior patterns shown in research
• what are the 3 types of hypotheses?


  conceptual, operational and statistical
• a conceptual hypothesis uses the vague terms to show concept but no actual operationalising
• statistical hypothesis shows what we expect to happen numerically
• what is alpha level?

  the percentage of false positive findings we are willing to accept where the null hypothesis is true- based on a cost-benefit analysis
• 3 things that help get the most out of p-values

  1. effect sizes
  2. confidence intervals
  3. power analysis