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We did this by looking at the cross tabs and seeing how far the
observed frequencies were from the frequencies we would
expect if the two variables were independent.
For nominal variables that only had 2 possible responses each
(yes/no, male/female, insane/sane), we could use the odds
ratio.
The tradeoff: Odds ratio can be used for one-tailed tests, chi-
squared cant. Chi-squared can handle any number of rows
and columns.
Get chi-squared is also heavy in math, so in the real world,
SPSS and other software can handle most of it for us.
There are ways to deal with cells with small n. The easiest one
is to find a logical way to group categories together.
Here, there are substantially fewer older adults than any other
group.
We still have one cell below 5, but thats better than having
three cells below 5. This wont distort our answer by much.
This brings up the menu to define the old categories you have
the new categories you want.
In the new popup, check Output variables are strings first
1Young Young,
2MiddleAge NotYoung, and
3OlderAdult NotYoung are the recoding were doing.
Now we can a crosstab in SPSS with the variable with the
merged category variable.
( Analyze Descriptive Statistics Crosstabs )
We can look at the expected frequencies.
(Crosstabs menu, Statistics button, Check Expected)
Even though one cell has observed frequency less than 5, its
expected frequency is more than 5, so the potential problem is
lessened.
We can also do the chi-squared test again and see if theres a
problem or a change in the p-value.
This implies that merging middle age and older didnt change
anything major.
Degrees of freedom =
2
=
There is evidence against independence.
We have a 2x4 crosstab, so we should use a chi-squared test.
These are the results:
Degrees of freedom = 3
2
= 50.434
There is very significant evidence against independence.
The chi-squared test has a very small p-value (less than .001).
Do the results of this test tell us that there are more left
handed people in athletics in general?
The chi-squared test has a very small p-value (less than .001).
Do the results of this test tell us that there are more left
handed people in athletics in general?