EDUC7011 Lesson 20 - Introduction (Qualitative Variables)

 Lesson 20: Univariate Descriptive Statistics for Qualitative Variables

Qualitative or categorical variables are those whose values represent mutually exclusive categories with no quantitative meaning (e.g. gender, race or religion preference).

Activity 1 (p139): 

Tables generated:

Table 1

Statistics
		Gender of Participant	Ethnic Status	Job Category
N	Valid	120	120	120
	Missing	0	0	0
Mean		1.52	3.03	5.74
Median		2.00	3.00	6.00
Mode		2	4	7

Observation:
In this case, information about mean and median are not relevant as we are unable to pin down a value 'between' male and female, the various ethnic status or each type of job.

On the other hand, mode would be handy. It will inform us, within each variable, which category is picked up by the respondents most often.

However, note that the "numbers" in the above table (under mode) has its own definition. For example

• "Gender of Participants": "2" represents "women"
• So, there are more women than men
• "Ethnic Status": "4" represents "White"
• Amongst the 5 categories, we have the most number of participants belonging to the category "White"
• "Job Category": "7" represents "Medical"
• When the participants are grouped by their job, we would have more people come from the "medical" sector than any other categories.

 Table 2

Gender of Participant
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Men	58	48.3	48.3	48.3
	Women	62	51.7	51.7	100.0
	Total	120	100.0	100.0

Observation:
This table affirms the fact (information from Table 1) that there are more women (51.7%) than men (48.3%).

 Table 3

Ethnic Status
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Black	20	16.7	16.7	16.7
	Hispanic	24	20.0	20.0	36.7
	Asian	17	14.2	14.2	50.8
	White	51	42.5	42.5	93.3
	Other	8	6.7	6.7	100.0
	Total	120	100.0	100.0

Observation:
From the chart, we learnt that among the 120 participants in the research, 42.5% are the Whites, followed by the Hispanic (20%); while 8% of the research subjects belong to the others (the minority ethnic groups)

Table 4

Job Category
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Clerical	13	10.8	10.8	10.8
	Management	5	4.2	4.2	15.0
	Maintenance	7	5.8	5.8	20.8
	Academic	15	12.5	12.5	33.3
	Professional	13	10.8	10.8	44.2
	Self-Employed	13	10.8	10.8	55.0
	Medical	20	16.7	16.7	71.7
	Skilled	13	10.8	10.8	82.5
	Military	12	10.0	10.0	92.5
	Unemployed	9	7.5	7.5	100.0
	Total	120	100.0	100.0

Observation:
16.7% of the research subjects are from the "medical" sector; followed by the "Ccademic" that made up 12.5% of the subjects. Three other areas are equally represented, namely, "Professional", "Self-Employed" and "Skilled", which is 10.8%.

Answer to the questions:
1. What are the percentages of men and women in the sample?
With reference to Table 2, 51.7% are men and 48.3% are women.

2. What are the frequencies associated with each ethnic status category?
See Table 3: There are 20 Blacks, 14 Hispanic, 17 Asians, 5 Whites and 5 belonging to other ethnic groups.

3. How many participants are in each of the 10 job categories?
See Table 4.

Category		Frequency
	Clerical	13
	Management	5
	Maintenance	7
	Academic	15
	Professional	13
	Self-Employed	13
	Medical	20
	Skilled	13
	Military	12
	Unemployed	9
	Total	120

Figure 1: Bar chart of job category
Chart that shows the number of subjects in each job category

 

Figure 2: Pie chart of different ethnic status

Chart that shows the distribution of subjects according to their ethnic status

An APA Participants Section (from the textbook, p144):
The sample consists of 120 participants, approximately half of them were women (n=62) while the rest were men (n=58). Table 3 and Figure 2 shows the frequencies and percentages of the etnnic status respectively. Approximately 42% of the participants were Whites, and the remaining participants were relatively evenly distributed across Blacks (17%), Hispanics (20%), Asians (14%) and others (8%). Table 4 reports the frequencies and percentages associated with job categories. The most frequently occuring job category was the medical profession, and the least common job category was management.