1. Week 10
Intro. to Quantitative Methods
1 Prof. Michelle Brady and Lindsay Tedds
Basic Concepts
2. Overview
• Qualitative vs. Quantitative
• Main Goals of Quant Research
• Operationalization & Measurement
• Types of Variables
• Levels of Measurement (Variables)
• Data & Statistics @ Uvic
2
3. Introduction
Prof. Michelle Brady & Lindsay Tedds3
Qualitative vs. Quantitative
Characteristics of Quant. Analysis (Positivism)
Numbers and statistics (counting)
Objective, context-free
Researcher is separate from the data
One reality
Representative
Efficient
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDo7jwikqqI
4. Main Goals of Quantitative Researchers
Prof. Michelle Brady & Lindsay Tedds4
Measurement
Generalization
External Validity
Replication
Reliability
Establishing causality (Sometimes)
Internal Validity
8. Atlantic Canada 1 60
Quebec 2 316
Ontario 3 343
Prairies 4 114
B.C. 5 77
Levels of Measurement
1. Nominal
Qualitative variable that can only be classified into
categories and counted
Categories have no logical order
Categories are mutually exclusive and exhaustive
Page 8
9. Never 1 4
Sometimes 2 23
Frequently 3 27
Always 4 8
Levels of Measurement
2. Ordinal
Mutually exhaustive and exclusive
categories, counted, and ranked but we
can’t distinguish the magnitude of the
difference between the categories
E.G. is “Always” twice as much as
“Sometimes”?
Page 9
10. 3. Interval
Mutually exhaustive and exclusive
categories, counted, and ranked and we
can distinguish the magnitude of the
difference between the categories and
the difference between values is a
constant size
0, if present, is just a point on the scale
and does not represent the absence of
the condition
Rare in data: E.g. temperature, dates
Levels of Measurement
Page 10
11. 4. Ratio
Mutually exhaustive and exclusive categories,
counted, and ranked and we can distinguish
the magnitude of the difference between the
categories and the difference between values
is a constant size
The zero point is meaningful as is the ratio
between two number
Most quantitative data fall into this category
E.G. Income
Levels of Measurement
Page 11
12. Measurement Levels
Page 12
Interval Data
Ordinal Data
Nominal Data
Quantitative Data
Qualitative Data
Categories (no ordering
or direction)
Ordered Categories
(rankings, order, or
scaling)
Differences between
measurements but no
true zero
Ratio Data
Differences between
measurements, true
zero exists
13. Data & Statistics: Where to find them
Prof. Michelle Brady & Lindsay Tedds13
For help with Data and Statistics sources, contact
Kathleen Matthews, Data Services Librarian
kmatthew@uvic.ca
http://library.uvic.ca/site/data/default.html
Published statistics are available from a variety of print
and online sources. Consult the Libraries Subject
Guides.
For a quick overview, you can check statistics by topic
from Statistics Canada.
For help in finding published statistics, Ask a Librarian, or
contact the Subject Librarian of your choice.
http://webapp.library.uvic.ca/kb/?View=entry&EntryID=35
14. Next Week
Prof. Michelle Brady & Lindsay Tedds14
We are in the computer lab (See Moodle)
Work through the Excel tutorials in
advance
We will cover based data analysis
techniques and practice them in the lab