Amber Young

PA6601: Research Methods in Public Administration

Dr. Katheryn Rice

September 12, 2022

Unit of Analysis Assignment

Alabama Pride University is deciding whether to raise tuition. Its answer will depend on whether
there has been an increase in the average amount of money first-year college students spend on
school supplies that do not include books. They do not wish to put any additional financial
burden on students if their expenses increase. The average cost of supplies (excluding books)
was $100 the prior year. 100 first-year students at the university are randomly surveyed. Three
students spent $150, $200, and $225 on supplies (excluding books).

1. What is your unit of analysis?

• Unit of analysis: "The entities being studied, whose behavior is to be understood"

(Chambliss & Schutt, 2016, p. 34).

An example of a unit of analysis is a study on people's eating behavior. The unit of analysis
would be at the individual level. In the scenario above, we seek to determine how much money
first-year college students spend on school supplies. The unit of analysis is at the individual
level, specifically, a first-year student at APU.

2. What is the population?

• Population: "The entire set of individuals or other entities to which study findings are
to be generalized" (Chambliss & Schutt, 2016, p. 99).

Population refers to all items or people of interest from which conclusions are drawn. An
example of a population would be all the sailors in the United States Navy. In the statement
above, the population is all first-year students attending Alabama Pride University.

3. What is the sample?

• Sample: "A subset of a population used to study the population as a whole"

(Chambliss & Schutt, 2016, p. 99).

In this scenario, the sample is the 100 first-year students randomly surveyed.

4. Construct a potential hypothesis.

 • Hypothesis: "A tentative statement about empirical reality involving a relationship
between two or more variables" (Chambliss & Schutt, 2016, p. 373).

H1: If the average amount of money first-year college students spend on school supplies
decreases, then tuition at Alabama Pride University will increase.

5. What would be your independent and dependent variables?

• Independent variable: "A variable that is hypothesized to cause, or lead to, variation
in another variable" (Chambliss & Schutt, 2016, p. 374).

• Dependent variable: "A variable that is hypothesized to vary depending on or under

the influence of another variable" (Chambliss & Schutt, 2016, p. 372).

In the scenario, the dependent variable would be the cost of tuition. The independent variable
would be the cost of supplies (i.e., the average amount of money first-year students spend on
school supplies, excluding books). The tuition rate being raised depends on how much money
first-year students have spent on supplies.

6. What level of measurement is your independent variable (nominal, ordinal, interval,

or ratio)?

• Level of measurement: "The mathematical precision with which the values of the
variable can be expressed. The nominal level of measurement, which is qualitative,
has no mathematical interpretation; the qualitative levels of measurement - ordinal,
interval, and ratio - are progressively more precise mathematically" (Chambliss &
Schutt, 2016, p. 84).

• Nominal level of measurement: "Variables whose values have no mathematical

interpretation; they vary and kind or quality but not in amount" (Chambliss & Schutt,
2016, p. 85).

• Ordinal level of measurement: "A measurement of a variable in which the numbers

indicating a variable’s values specify only the order of the cases, permitting greater
than and less than distinctions" (Chambliss & Schutt, 2016, p. 85).

• Interval level of measurement: "A measurement of a variable in which the numbers

indicating a variable's values represent fixed measurement units but have no absolute,
or fixed, zero point" (Chambliss & Schutt, 2016, p. 85).

• Ratio level of measurement: "A measurement of a variable in which the numbers

indicating the variable's values represent fixed measuring units and an absolute zero
point" (Chambliss & Schutt, 2016, p. 86).
The independent variable is the cost of supplies for first-year students (i.e., the average amount
of money first-year students spend on school supplies, excluding books) If I were to measure
this, it would be in the form of “yes/no”. Did the first-year students spend too much money? Yes,
then the tuition doesn’t go up. No, then the education goes up. The level of measurement for the
independent variable is nominal.

7. What level of measurement is your dependent variable (nominal, ordinal, interval,

or ratio)?

The level of measurement for the dependent variable (i.e., APU tuition rate) is ratio because the
tuition rate is a fixed measurement (money), and the units have absolute zero points (i.e., $0.00).

8. Given your levels of measurement, what type of statistics might you use to analyze
your data (you can choose from Chapter 8 or more advanced statistics)?

• Statistic: "A numerical description of some feature of a variable or variables in a

sample from a larger population” (Chambliss & Schutt, 2016, p. 181).

• Mode: The most frequent value in the distribution” (Chambliss & Schutt, 2016, p.
191).

• Mean: "The arithmetic, or weighted, average computed by adding the value of all the
cases and dividing the total number of cases" (Chambliss & Schutt, 2016, p. 191).

• Median: "The position average, or the point, that divides a distribution in half (the
50th percentile) (Chambliss & Schutt, 2016, p. 191).

• Standard deviation: "The square root of the average squared deviation of each case
from the mean" (Chambliss & Schutt, 2016, p. 195).

For this specific scenario, it would be essential to calculate the mean since the tuition rate being
raised depends on the study's outcome regarding the average amount first-year students spent on
supplies compared to previous years. The mean is essential to "the average." The mode would
help you understand the most frequent value being paid. The median is essential to locate the
center of the data set. This allows the data set to become more descriptive than only the average.
These central tendency measures help define the single value of an entire population through a
summary measure.

You could also measure the standard deviation to summarize the differences between each
observation and the mean. Parameters such as these help us quantify our study to determine a
population.
9. Construct a spreadsheet based on the information in the example. Provide a title,
column labels, and the small amount of data provided above. You do not need to add
more information or data than provided.

ALABAMA PRIDE UNIVERSITY TUITION STUDY - DATA

Cases Money Spent on Supplies (excluding books)

1 150
2 200
3 225
 References

Chambliss, D. F., & Schutt, R. K. (2016). Making sense of the social world: Methods of

investigation (6th ed.). Sage.