8 Association between Categorical Variables.pptVIP

8. Association between Categorical Variables Suppose both response and explanatory variables are categorical. (Chap. 9 considers both quantitative.) There is association if the population conditional distribution for the response variable differs among the categories of the explanatory variable Example: Contingency table on happiness cross-classified by family income (data from 2006 GSS) Happiness Income Very Pretty Not too Total --------------------------------------------- Above 272 (44%) 294 (48%) 49 (8%) 615 Average 454 (32%) 835 (59%) 131 (9%) 1420 Below 185 (20%) 527 (57%) 208 (23%) 920 ---------------------------------------------- Response: Happiness, Explanatory: Income The sample conditional distributions on happiness vary by income level, but can we conclude that this is also true in the population? Guidelines for Contingency Tables Show sample conditional distributions: percentages for the response variable within the categories of the explanatory variable. Find by dividing the cell counts by the explanatory category total and multiplying by 100. (Percents on response categories will add to 100) Clearly define variables and categories. If display percentages but not the cell counts, include explanatory total sample sizes, so reader can (if desired) recover all the cell count data. (I use rows for explanatory var., columns for response var.) Independence Dependence Statistical independence (no association): Population conditional distributions on one variable the same for all categories of the other variable Statistical dependence (association): Conditional distributions are not all identical Example of statistical independence: Happiness Income Very Pretty Not too ------------------------------