qualitative data

Examples of qualitative data in the following topics:

• Quantitative or Qualitative Data?

  • Different statistical tests are used to test quantitative and qualitative data.
  • Quantitative (numerical) data is any data that is in numerical form, such as statistics, percentages, et cetera.
  • Qualitative (categorical) research, on the other hand, asks broad questions and collects word data from participants.
  • Examples of qualitative variables are male/female, nationality, color, et cetera.
  • One of the most common statistical tests for qualitative data is the chi-square test (both the goodness of fit test and test of independence).

• Graphs of Qualitative Data

  • Recall the difference between quantitative and qualitative data.
  • Qualitative data are measures of types and may be represented as a name or symbol.
  • Statistics that describe or summarize can be produced for quantitative data and to a lesser extent for qualitative data.
  • There are a number of ways in which qualitative data can be displayed.
  • The qualitative data results were displayed in a frequency table.

• Describing Qualitative Data

  • Concept formation is the creation of variables (usually called themes) out of raw qualitative data.
  • It is more sophisticated in qualitative data analysis.
  • Coding is the actual transformation of qualitative data into themes.
  • Mechanical techniques rely on leveraging computers to scan and reduce large sets of qualitative data.
  • Summarize the processes available to researchers that allow qualitative data to be analyzed similarly to quantitative data.

• Measures of Variability of Qualitative and Ranked Data

  • Variability for qualitative data is measured in terms of how often observations differ from one another.
  • A discussion of the variability of qualitative--or categorical-- data can sometimes be absent.
  • In such a discussion, we would consider the variability of qualitative data in terms of unlikeability.
  • In other words, the notion of "how far apart" does not make sense when evaluating qualitative data.
  • An index of qualitative variation (IQV) is a measure of statistical dispersion in nominal distributions--or those dealing with qualitative data.

• Data

  • Qualitative data are the result of categorizing or describing attributes of a population.
  • Qualitative data are generally described by words or letters.
  • Researchers often prefer to use quantitative data over qualitative data because it lends itself more easily to mathematical analysis.
  • The colors red, black, black, green, and gray are qualitative data.
  • Work collaboratively to determine the correct data type (quantitative or qualitative).

• Averages of Qualitative and Ranked Data

  • The central tendency for qualitative data can be described via the median or the mode, but not the mean.
  • In order to address the process for finding averages of qualitative data, we must first introduce the concept of levels of measurement.
  • The nominal scale differentiates between items or subjects based only on their names and/or categories and other qualitative classifications they belong to.
  • On the other hand, the median, i.e. the middle-ranked item, makes no sense for the nominal type of data since ranking is not allowed for the nominal type.
  • An opinion survey is an example of a non-dichotomous data set on the ordinal scale for which the central tendency can be described by the median or the mode.

• Types of Data

  • Data can be categorized as either primary or secondary and as either qualitative or quantitative.
  • Qualitative data: race, religion, gender, etc.
  • Qualitative data: height in inches, time in seconds, temperature in degrees, etc.
  • Collecting information about a favorite color is an example of collecting qualitative data.
  • Differentiate between primary and secondary data and qualitative and quantitative data.

• Summary

  • Quantitative Data (a number)- Discrete (You count it. )- Continuous (You measure it. )

• Do It Yourself: Plotting Qualitative Frequency Distributions

  • Qualitative frequency distributions can be displayed in bar charts, Pareto charts, and pie charts.
  • Data that is not organized is referred to as raw data.
  • One common way to organize qualitative, or categorical, data is in a frequency distribution.
  • The first step towards plotting a qualitative frequency distribution is to create a table of the given or collected data.
  • Outline the steps necessary to plot a frequency distribution for qualitative data.

• Qualitative Variable Models

  • Dummy variables are used as devices to sort data into mutually exclusive categories (such smoker/non-smoker, etc.).
  • Dummy variables are "proxy" variables, or numeric stand-ins for qualitative facts in a regression model.
  • One type of ANOVA model, applicable when dealing with qualitative variables, is a regression model in which the dependent variable is quantitative in nature but all the explanatory variables are dummies (qualitative in nature).
  • This type of ANOVA modelcan have differing numbers of qualitative variables.
  • An example with two qualitative variables might be if hourly wages were explained in terms of the qualitative variables marital status (married / unmarried) and geographical region (North / non-North).