Statistical Techniques to Compare Groups

with the help of IBM SPSS v.22

Adil Bilal Kahlown

COO, ResearchTeck Pvt. Ltd., Islamabad.
Lecturer, University of the Punjab, Gujranwala Campus, Gujranwala.
Principal, CMS College, Gujranwala.
Statistical Techniques to
compare groups
http://goo.gl/bK1hh3
 Techniques for Comparing
Means
• Independent Sample T-test
• Paired-Samples t-test
• One-Way ANOVA (Between Groups)
• One-Way ANOVA (repeated measures)
• Two-way ANOVA (Between Groups)
• MANOVA
• ANCOVA
• Non Parametric Techniques
 Some Key Points
Situation Test

Two Groups (Males / Females) Independent T-Test

Same People More than One Occasion Paired Sample T-Test

More than Two Groups ANOVA

One Independent Variable One Way ANOVA

Two Independent Variables Two Way ANOVA

More than one Dependent Variable MANOVA

When we need to control one variable ANCOVA

 Assumptions of the t-test
• Both the independent t-test and the dependent t-test
are based on the normal distribution. Therefore, they
assume:
– The sampling distribution is normally distributed. In the
dependent t-test this means that the sampling distribution
of the differences between scores should be normal, not the
scores themselves.
– Data are measured at least at the interval level.
• The independent t-test, because it is used to test
different groups of people, also assumes:
– Variances in these populations are roughly equal
(homogeneity of variance).
– Scores in different treatment conditions are independent
(because they come from different people).
 Example
• Is arachnophobia (fear of spiders) specific to
real spiders or is a picture enough?
• Participants
– 12 spider phobic individuals
• Manipulation
– Each participant was exposed to a real spider and
a picture of the same spider at two points in time.
• Outcome
– Anxiety
 Independent vs Dependent
Between Subjects vs Within Subjects
For an independent or between-subjects For a dependent or within-subjects
design you need a grouping variable. design (pre, post) the repeated
measures for a subject are entered in
rows. The first row is subject 1’s data.
Dependent
t-test
 Dependent t-test Output

t(11) = 2.473, p = .031, There is a significant difference between the

means, 40 ± 9.293 is significantly different from 47 ± 11.029.
 Dependent t-test Output
• Confidence interval
– The confidence interval tells us the boundaries
within which the true mean difference is likely
to lie.
• So, assuming this sample’s confidence interval is
one of the 95 out of 100 that contains the
population value, we can say that the true mean
difference lies between −13.23 and −0.77.
 Dependent t-test Output
• Degrees of Freedom
– In some circumstances the term degrees of
freedom is used to denote the number of
independent comparisons which can be made
between the members of a sample.
 Reporting the Results
• On average, participants experienced
significantly greater anxiety to real spiders
(M = 47.00, SE = 3.18) than to pictures of
spiders (M = 40.00, SE = 2.68), t(11) =
−2.47, p < .05
 Example
• Is arachnophobia (fear of spiders) specific to
real spiders or is a picture enough?
• Participants
– 24 spider phobic individuals
• Manipulation random assignment to:
– 12 participants were exposed to a real spider
– 12 were exposed to a picture of the same spider.
• Outcome
– Anxiety
 Independent or Dependent?
• The purpose of this experiment was to
determine the differences in anxiety
between real spiders and pictures of spiders.
• 24 subjects were randomly assigned to one
of the following groups:
– Shown a picture of a spider
– Shown a real spider.
• After viewing the picture or spider their
anxiety was measured.
Independent t-test: Define Groups
Click on Define Groups,
then enter group values
 Independent t-test Output

Do the groups have equal variance? Look at Levene’s Test for Equality of Variance,
Yes, p = .386, you don’t want this test to be significant. The null hypothesis is that
the groups have equal variances.

t(22) = −1.681, p = .107, there is no difference between the means, 40 ±

9.293 is not different from 47 ± 11.029.
 Reporting the Results
• On average, participants experienced
greater anxiety to real spiders (M = 47.00,
SE = 3.18), than to pictures of spiders (M =
40.00, SE = 2.68. This difference was not
significant t(22) = −1.68, p > .05
 ANOVA
• Comparing More than two Groups
• It compares the variance between the different
groups with the variability between the each
groups.

1. One way ANOVA between groups

2. One Way ANOVA repeated measures

Slide 20
 Why ???
• When we want to compare means we can use a t-
test. This test has limitations:
– You can compare only 2 means: often we would like to
compare means from 3 or more groups.
– It can be used only with one Predictor/Independent
Variable.

Slide 21
 Why Not Use Lots of t-Tests?
• If we want to compare several means why don’t we
compare pairs of means with t-tests?
– Can’t look at several independent variables.
– Inflates the Type I error rate.

Dog Dog Cat Dog Bird

Cat Cat Bird

Bird

Slide 22
One-Way ANOVA Between
Groups

You can conduct One-Way ANOVA by

clicking:

Analyze > Compare Means > One-

Way ANOVA…
ANOVA in SPSS

Dependent variable [Pleasure] goes

to “Dependent List:” box and the
independent variable [dose] goes to
“Factor:” box.
ANOVA in SPSS

Select “Descriptive”, Homogeneity of

variance test” and “Means Plot” in the
“Statistics” section of “One-Way
ANOVA: Options” window.

Then, click “Continue” and “OK”

buttons.
ANOVA in SPSS

First of all, you have to check the equal

variance assumption. The probability
associated with Levene's Test for Equality of
Variances (p<0.001) is not less than or
equal to the level of significance (0.01). We
accept the null hypothesis that the
variances are equal and conclude that the
assumption of equal variances is satisfied.
 ANOVA in SPSS
The probability of the F test statistic (F=5.119) with p<0.025, less than or equal
to the alpha level of significance of 0.05. The null hypothesis that the mean
“Pleasure" is the same for all groups defined by the variable “Dose of
Medicines" is rejected.