Week 6

Question 1

What is an association?

Answer 1

Association = Patterned (systematic) variation.
* Two options: There is or is not systematic variation.
– An association:
* Gender is linked to patterns of work hours.
– No association: No systematic pattern.
* Gender is not linked to patterns of work hours.

Question 2

How to demonstrate an association?

Answer 2

Depends on the variables you are exploring:
– Today we look at discrete variables.
– Next week, we will look at continuous variables.
* Tools for discrete variables:
– Descriptive statistics: Contingency tables.
– Inferential statistics: Chi-squared test.

Question 3

What are the necessary steps to establish causality?

Answer 3

Theoretical rationale linking potential cause and effect.
2. Demonstrate that the cause (independent variable)
happened before the outcome (dependent variable).
3. Show that there is an association between the cause
(independent variable) and the outcome (dependent
variable).
4. Remove any other factors that could be related to the
outcome (dependent variable).

Question 4

What are marginal distributions?

Answer 4

• Marginal distributions
  – Univariate statistics:
• Overall description of individual features of your sample

Question 5

What are conditional distributions?

Answer 5

• Conditional distributions
  – Bivariate statistics:
• One variable is restricted to a single category of the other group.