Data analysis: Graphs

Question 1

How can quantitative data be presented & displayed?

Answer 1

• summarising data in a table
• bar charts
• scattergrams

Question 2

How is data summarised into a table?

Answer 2

• data in a table which appears in reports aren’t merely raw scores but have been converted to descriptive stats
• there is also usually a summary paragraph beneath the table which explains the results

Question 3

What are bar charts?

Answer 3

• a type of graph in which the frequency of each variable is represented by the height of the bars
• used when data is divided into categories (discrete data)

Question 4

What are scattergrams?

Answer 4

• a type of graph that represents the strength & direction of a relationship between co-variables in a correlational analysis
• they depict associations between co-variables not differences

Question 5

What is normal distribution?

Answer 5

• a symmetrical spread of frequency data that forms a bell-shaped pattern
• the mean, median and mode are all located at the highest peak
• most people are located in the middle area of the curve with very few people at the extreme ends
• the ‘tails’ of the curve never touch the x-axis as extreme scores are always theoretically possible

Question 6

What is skewed distribution?

Answer 6

• a spread of frequency data that is not symmetrical where the data clusters to one end
• a positive skew is a type of distribution where the long tail is on the right side of the peak and most of the distribution is concentrated on the left
• mode is the highest point of the peak and then the median but the mean has been dragged across the right
  a negative skew is a type of distribution where the long tail is on the left side of the peak and most of the distribution is concentrated on the right