Slide 1

LIS 570

Elaborating bivariate relationships

Interpreting data and drawing conclusions

Slide 2

Summary

• Elaborating bivariate relationships (De Vaus)

• replication

• specification

• intervening variable

• spurious relationships

• partial correlations

• Interpreting data and drawing conclusions (Bouma)

• What did you ask?

• What did you find?

• What do you conclude?

• To whom do your conclusions apply?

Slide 3

Elaborating relationships

• Why does the relationship exist?

• What is the nature of the relationship?

• How general is the relationship?

• Elaboration model

• interpretation method

• the Columbia School

• Lazarsfeld method

Slide 4

Elaboration paradigm

• Aim

• to provide a logical/ statistical technique that would allow researchers to elaborate on the nature of observed relationships

• replication

• the relationship is replicated or repeated under different conditions

• Specification

• relationship operates only under certain conditions and not others

Slide 5

Specification or replication

• The original bivariate relationship is called a zero order relationship

• Partial table (trivariate table)

• Third variable (control or test variable) introduced

• Within each subgroup of the control variable, tables are constructed to examine the original relationship.

• Measurement of bivariate relationships in each of the partial tables  (partial relationships)

Slide 6

Specification or replication

• Comparison with zero order relationship

Slide 7

Replication

Slide 8

Replication

Slide 9

Specification

• the relationship between the original two variables differs for various types of people

• the specific types for whom it does or does not hold

• the relationship is not general but subgroup specific

• statistical interaction (De Vaus)

• The effect of X on Y is partly dependent on additional characteristics of the person.

Slide 10

Specification  (Glock)

Slide 11

Specification

Slide 12

Specification

Slide 13

Interpretation - Intervening variable (Stoufler)

Slide 14

Intervening variable

Slide 15

Explanation - spurious relationships

• spurious - not a genuine relationship

• test variable must be antecedent

Slide 16

Spurious relationship

• compare the initial bivariate relationship with the conditional relationship

• no relationship in the conditional table - we have explained the original relationship

• completely and partly spurious relationships

Slide 17

Drawing conclusion (Bouma)

• What did you ask?

• What did you find?

• What do you conclude?

• To whom do your conclusions apply?

Slide 18

Reporting your research

• the objectives or hypotheses

• the major concept(s) and conceptual definition(s)

• the major variables and operational definitions

• the measurement instrument, for example the self-administered; questionnaire or content analysis sheets

Slide 19

Reporting your research

• a description of the research design, for example a quantitative “case study”, an experiment.

• a definition of the population (group of interest) and a short discussion of the sampling methods you would use in a larger scale study. The method for selecting participants for the pilot study

Slide 20

Reporting your research

• a description of the data collection methods

• the presentation of the results

• a discussion and interpretation of the results, i.e. what they mean to you, and any limitations or concerns, for example ethical, validity, reliability.

• Conclusions