ABSTRACT
This chapter explains about the nature of data. When data is categorical, researchers report the frequencies of each category or type within the variable. By examining the descriptive data, consumers of research can begin to understand the nature of the research variables. Correlational analyses indicate how strongly related variables are to one another or the degree to which some variables predict another variable. A statistical analysis begins with the assumption that there is no relationship between the variables. In regression analyses, the researcher aims to determine how accurately a dependent variable can be predicted based upon some set of independent variables. In a standard multiple regression, all of the dependent variables are analyzed at once to determine their relationships to the independent variable. Once researchers have generated means and standard deviations from a data set, analyses are available to compare two or more groups.
