Contingency Tables and 2

Frequency a) the number of occurrences of an event during a unit of time. b) the

number of occurrences of a characteristic in a sample or population. c) the number of
observations in a particular category.

Frequency Distribution a a tabulation of all the values of a categorical variable.

Proportion the number of occurrences of a characteristic in a sample or population

divided by the number of observations in the sample or population.

Percentage a special instance of a proportion in which the proportion is multiplied by

100 and thus expressed as the proportion per 100 (i.e. cent in latin) observations.

Association a) a relationship between two or more variables that can be described

statistically. b) the extent to which differences in one variable are accompanied by or
associated with differences in another variable. c) a statistics that measures the
relationship between two variables and therefore allows the estimation or prediction of
one variable when the value of the other variable is known.

Independent Variable (predictor, determinant, cause, explanatory variable) a) the

variable that is presumed to be the, or a cause of another variable. b) a variable that is
used to predict or estimate the value of another variable. c) in an experiment, the variable
being manipulated and the dependent variable is the observed result of the independent
variable being manipulated.

Dependent Variable (response, outcome, effect, explained variable, regressand) a) the

variable that is presumed to be the effect of a study. b) a variable depends on another
variable or variables. b) a variable that is predicted or estimated using another variable or
variables. d) in an experiment, the variable that is observed and expected to change as a
result of the manipulation of the independent variable.

Contingency Table (Cross-Tablulation) a) a table of the joint frequency distribution of

two categorical variables. b) a table in which usually the frequencies in the rows (the
dependent variable) are contingent on the frequencies in the columns (the independent
variable) c) a table that reveals the relationship of two categorical variables.

Marginal Frequency Distribution (marginals) a) in a contingency table, the frequency

distribution of each variable independent of the other variable. b) the ungrouped
frequencies. c) the frequencies in the margins (bottom and right) of a cross-tabulation.

Joint Distributions - a) in a contingency table, the frequency distribution of the variables

independent of the other variable. b) the grouped frequencies. c) the frequencies in the
interior of a cross-tabulation.
Chi-square Test (chi-square goodness-of-fit test, chi-square test for independence,
Pearsons chi-square, chi-squared) a) an inferential statistic that is used to assess
whether a difference between the observed and expected frequencies of two variables in a
contingency table is statistically significant, that is would be unlikely to occur by chance.
b) the greater the difference between the observed frequencies and the expected
frequencies, the larger the chi-square statistic and the more likely the difference is
statistically significant or unlikely to have occurred merely due to chance. c) a test of the
magnitude of an association among categorical variables in a contingency table with the
null hypothesis being that the variables are not related.

(f f ) 2

2 o e

f e

Degrees of freedom = (r-1)(c-1).

Observed Frequency a) the actual number of observations in each cell in a

contingency table that is based on sample data.

Expected Frequency a) in a contingency table, the frequency that you would expect or
predict if the null hypothesis of independence of the variables were true. b) cell
frequencies calculated multiplying row (dependent variable) marginal frequency and the
column (independent variable) marginal frequency and dividing by total observations.

Substantive (Visual, Intuitive, Subjective) Guidelines for Assessing Bivariate

Associations

From Miethe, Simple Statistics:

Percentage Point Differences
a) No relationship = 0 Percentage Point Difference.
b) Weak relationship = 0 to 10 Percentage Point Difference.
c) Moderate relationship = 10 to 30 Percentage Point Difference.
d) Strong relationship = Greater than 30 Percentage Point Difference.
e) Perfect relationship = 100 Percentage Point Difference.

An alternative or Elaboration:
Percentage Point Ratio (Divide larger percent by smaller percent)
a) No relationship = Ratio of 1.
b) Weak relationship = Ratio between 1 and 1.25.
c) Moderate relationship = Ratio between 1.25 and 1.5.
d) Strong relationship = Ratio greater than 1.5.
Example from the General Social Survey

NOT MARRIED - HAVE GUN IN HOME * RESPONDENTS

SEX Crosstabulation
RESPONDENTS SEX
MALE FEMALE Total
HAVE YES 153 108 261
GUN IN NO 293 496 789
HOME
Total 446 604 1050

TOTAL PERCENTAGES
RESPONDENTS SEX
MALE FEMALE Total
HAVE YES 15% 10% 25%
GUN IN NO 28% 47% 75%
HOME
Total 42% 58% 100%

ROW PERCENTAGES
RESPONDENTS SEX
MALE FEMALE Total
HAVE YES 59% 41% 100%
GUN IN NO 37% 63% 100%
HOME
Total 42% 58% 100%

COLUMN PERCENTAGES
RESPONDENTS SEX
MALE FEMALE Total
HAVE YES 34% 18% 25%
GUN IN NO 66% 82% 75%
HOME
Total 100% 100% 100%
 NOT MARRIED - HAVE GUN IN HOME * RESPONDENTS SEX
Crosstabulation
RESPONDENTS SEX
MALE FEMALE Total
HAVE GUN YES 153 108 261
IN HOME NO 293 496 789
Total 446 604 1050

EXPECTED FREQUENCIES ((C*R)/T)

RESPONDENTS SEX
MALE FEMALE Total
HAVE GUN YES 111 150
IN HOME NO 335 454
Total

OBSERVED FREQUENCIES MINUS EXPECTED

FREQUENCIES
RESPONDENTS SEX
MALE FEMALE Total
HAVE GUN YES 42 (42)
IN HOME NO (42) 42
Total

DIFFERENCES SQUARED
RESPONDENTS SEX
MALE FEMALE Total
HAVE GUN YES 1,776 1,776
IN HOME NO 1,776 1,776
Total

DIFFERENCES SQUARED DIVIDED BY OBSERVED

RESPONDENTS SEX
MALE FEMALE Total
HAVE GUN YES 16 12
IN HOME NO 5 4
Total

16
12
5
4
CHI-SQUARED 37

DF= (R-1)*(C-1) 1
 NOT MARRIED FEMALE - HAVE GUN IN HOME * NOT MARRIED STATUS
Crosstabulation
RESPONDENTS SEX
NEVER
WIDOWED DIVORCED SEPARATED MARRIED Total
HAVE YES 38 29 5 36 108
GUN IN NO 109 152 27 208 496
HOME
Total 147 181 32 244 604

EXPECTED FREQUENCIES ((C*R)/T)

RESPONDENTS SEX
NEVER
WIDOWED DIVORCED SEPARATED MARRIED Total
HAVE YES 4
GUN IN 26 32 6 4
HOME NO 1 1 2 20
21 49 6 0
Total

OBSERVED FREQUENCIES MINUS EXPECTED FREQUENCIES

RESPONDENTS SEX
NEVER
WIDOWED DIVORCED SEPARATED MARRIED Total
HAVE YES 1 (3 (0. (7.
GUN IN 1.7 .4) 7) 6)
HOME NO (11 0. 7.
.7) 3.4 7 6
Total

DIFFERENCES SQUARED
RESPONDENTS SEX
NEVER
WIDOWED DIVORCED SEPARATED MARRIED Total
HAVE YES 137 1 0. 58.
GUN IN .2 1.3 5 2
HOME NO 137 1 0. 58.
.2 1.3 5 2
Total

DIFFERENCES SQUARED DIVIDED BY OBSERVED

RESPONDENTS SEX
NEVER
WIDOWED DIVORCED SEPARATED MARRIED Total
HAVE YES 0. 1.
GUN IN 5.2 0.3 1 3
HOME NO 0. 0.
1.1 0.1 0 3
Total

CHI-SQUARED 8.5
DF= (R-1)*(C-1) 3