Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

ANALYSIS OF QUANTITATIVE DATA

FIGURE 2 Examples of Univariate Statistics

RAW COUNT FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION PERCENTAGE FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION

Gender Frequency Gender Percentage

Male 100 Male 25%
Female 300 Female 7 5%
Total 400 Total 100%

BAR CHART OF SAME INFORMATION

EXAMPLE OF GROUPED DATA FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION

First Job Annual Income N

Under $5,000 25
$5,000 to $9,999 50
$10,000 to $15,999 100
$16,000 to $19,999 150
$20,000 to $29,999 50
$30,000 and over 25
Total 400

EXAMPLE OF FREQUENCY POLYGON

etc.

etc.

Frequency

Individual Income (in Thousands of Dollars)

50

45

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

246810121416182022242628303234

Females

Males

usually a set of upright bar graphs for interval or
ratio data.^3
For interval- or ratio-level data, we often group
the information into several categories. The grouped
categories must be mutually exclusive. We also can

plot interval- or ratio-level data in a frequency

polygonwith the number of cases or frequency

along the vertical axis and the values of the vari-

able or scores along the horizontal axis. A polygon

appears when we connect the dots.