Reliability Analysis

Basically when the questionnaire is finalized for the data collection from the respondents
whine doing primary data research, over there finding out reliability of the different items
of the concerned variables used is very much critical. Reliability means to find about the
internal consistency between or among the number of items for measuring the respective
variable. The range of reliability is from 0 1. It is recommended by the scholars that the
value of reliability of 0.7 or above is acceptable as it is represented /denoted by
Cronbachs alpha while less than 0.7 value of Cronbachs alpha is not recommended to be
used in analysis for expressing reliability. If the value of Cronbachs alpha is equal to or
greater than 0.7 then it can be concluded that the researcher or author can put trust on that
questionnaire or instrument. It also shows that the items for the respective variable are
actually measuring the same variables these items are specifically concerned with that
variable. Remember that the reliability value can never be in negative, if so is the case
then it signals that there is some problem in the our items of the measuring instrument.
One thing we all need to remember that we do not conduct reliability analysis for the
whole instrument or questionnaire instead we find out reliability for separate variables
that are mentioned in our measuring instrument. If the value of cronbachs alpha is less
than 0.7 then we go for another analysis which is called factor analysis. Factor Analysis is
actually a data reduction technique. Where we go for checking that whether the items are
properly loaded against their respective variables or not. (visit this site for step by step
guide in spss (www.Laerdstatistucs.com).

Regression
Regression is used to find out the impact of independent variables on the dependent
variable. In other it can be said that the aim is to find out the contribution of independent
variables played in explaining the dependent variable. In the outcome we get table of
model summary. In model summary R is used for correlation between or among the
variables included in the model. The range of correlation is from -1 to +1. R square is
used to check for the variance explained by independent variable in the dependent
variable. The range of R square is from 0-1. It also shows the contribution of independent
variables in explaining the dependent variable. R square change has the same
interpretation as of R square. F statistics shows the statistical significance of the model.
The tabulated value of F Statistics at 5% significance level (P-value) is 3.78. (i) if the
calculated value of F statistics is greater than tabulated value with P.05, then the model
is statistically significant. (ii) if the calculated value of F statistics is less than tabulated
value with P>.05, then the model is statistically insignificant. So in short there is inverse
relationship between the value of F Statistics and p-value. Second table that we get in the
output is the coefficients table. In the coefficient table we check the value of (Beta).
Beta value shows the rate of change in the dependent variable due to one unit change in
the independent variable. The or + sign indicates only the impact or direction of the
change whether positive or negative. The second column that we check in the coefficient

table is the t-value/statistics along with the p-value. The tabulated value of t-statistics at
5% (.05) significance level is 1.96. (i). If the calculated value of t-statistics is greater
than tabulated value with P.05, then accept hypothesis. (ii) If the calculated value of tstatistics is less than tabulated value with P>.05, then reject hypothesis. Remember that
while running the analysis in SPSS we canter more than one independent variables in the
variable column, while we can only enter one dependent variable in the dependent
variable cell. So if we have more than one dependent variables then we have to rune
regression analysis for each dependent variable, but again it does not apply to more than
one independent variable as we can enter more than independent variable at a time.

Correlation
Correlation is used to find out the strength of association between any two variables. The
range of correlation is from -1 to +1. The + sign shows that direction of the strength
association is same i.e. both the variables move in the same direction like if one variable
increases so the other variable also increases and vice versa. The sign shows the
movement of variables in opposite direction. Like if value of one variable increases then
the value of other variable decreases. Correlation is denoted by r (small r). from the table
of correlation the values of any two variables can be checked irrespective of the
composite association as we do in the model summary that is actually denoted by R.

Descriptive Statistics
In descriptive statistics we basically describe the main features of the data. Specifically
we check for measure of central tendency i.e. mean, median and mode Standard
Deviation etc. mean refers to the average value of the respondents data, mode tell us
about the most frequently occurring number in the data of the respondents, median refers
to the central value of the data of the respondents. Standard deviation refers to the
deviation of the data (value) from the mean value of the respondents data. Frequency is
used to find about the number or count of the respondents responses i.e. how many times
a response has been selected by the respondents of our sample size. Specifically
frequency is used for demographic section; however it can be used for all the responses
of the variables as well. In frequency table cumulative percentage refers to the
aggregate /total or combined percentage of the respondents responses. Similarly
measures of central tendency are also used for demographic section but at the same time
these can be used for the variables of the study as well. In descriptive statistics we also
get values of minimum and maximum. Minimum value shows the lower value in that
averaged column value while Maximum shows the highest value in the averaged values.
So it just shows the range of values from minimum to maximum.

Graphs

Graphs show the pictorial representation of the values in the descriptive statistics. It
shows values either in percentage form on y-axis or in frequency form on y-axis. Graphs
can be in form of Pie chart, Bar Chart or Histogram.

Note: refer to this site if you find anything difficult ( www.Laerdstatistics.com ). It will
help in strengthening the understanding of the analysis and processes.
----------------Best of Luck