NONPARAMETRIC TESTS

Learning Objectives

(a) review key differences of parametric data and nonparametric data

(b) understand various statistical tests in contexts
(c) perform one nonparametric test

Introduction

Two types of data are recognized in the application of statistical treatments, these are: parametric data and nonparametric
data. Parametric data are measured data, and parametric statistical tests assume that the data are normally, or nearly distributed (Best
and Kahn, 1998:338).

On the other hand, nonparametric data are distribution free samples which implies that they are free, or independent of the
population distribution (Ferguson and Takane, 1989:431). The tests on these data do not rest on the more stringent assumption of
normally distributed population (Best and Kahn, 1998:338).

Lesson Proper

The nonparametric tests available were enumerated in the table (Leedy, 1974:144).

Nonparametric test Parametric Equivalence

Mann-Whitney U test T-test
Wilcoxon matched pairs, Signed-rank test Dependent t-test
Wilcoxon rank sum test Independent samples t-test
Kolmogorov-Smirnov test Chi-square
Fisher signed test Paired t-test for dependent samples
Median test One-way ANOVA
Spearman rank order coefficient Pearson product moment correlation
Kruskal-Wallis test One-way ANOVA
Kendall coefficient of concordance Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC)

A. Mann-Whitney U test is the counterpart of the t-test in parametric measurements. It may find use in determining
whether the medians of two independent samples differ from each other to a significant degree (Calane, 2002).

Unlike the independent-samples t-test, the Mann-Whitney U test allows the researcher to draw different conclusions
about his/her data depending on the assumptions he/she make about your data's distribution. These conclusions can range
from simply stating whether the two populations differ through to determining if there are differences in medians
between groups. These different conclusions hinge on the shape of the distributions of the data (Leard Statistics, n.d).

For instance, you could use the Mann-Whitney U test to understand whether attitudes towards pay discrimination, where
attitudes are measured on an ordinal scale, differ based on gender (i.e., your dependent variable would be "attitudes
towards pay discrimination" and your independent variable would be "gender", which has two groups: "male" and
"female") [Leard Statistics, n.d.].

Sample Box

Test results of a study carried out on a

sample of 108 primary school teachers in the
district of Kosovska Mitrovica, in April-June 2010,
were used to describe the interpretation of
research results using the Mann-Whitney U test.
As the sample included more than 30 subjects
the z-approximation was calculated. Data
presented in Tables Ranks, Test Statistics (a) and
Report were to interpret the results of the research.

Table 1 presents data on the calculated z-values and the approximately calculated statistical significance of
differences between the crossed variables. In this example, the z-value was -1.018. The amount of its probability that
something happened by accident is not equal to or less than 0.05. The same was shown by the approximately
calculated statistical significance of differences (p-309). The research results, therefore, showed no statistically
significant differences in the professional development of teachers of primary schools according to their occupation
(class teacher / subject teacher).

B. Wilcoxon matched pairs, signed-rank test is employed to determine whether two samples differ from each other to a
significant degree when there is a relationship between the samples.
It is used to compare two sets of scores that come from the same participants. This can occur when there is a wish to
investigate any change in scores from one time point to another, or when individuals are subjected to more than one
condition.

For example, Wilcoxon signed-rank test can be used to understand whether there was a difference in smokers' daily
cigarette consumption before and after a 6-week hypnotherapy programme (i.e., the dependent variable would be "daily
cigarette consumption", and the two related groups would be the cigarette consumption values "before" and "after" the
hypnotherapy programme).

Sample Box

Context: The 2015 PISA survey collected information on students' degree of interest in a range of science-
related topics. In this example, we will test whether 15 year olds in England are more interested in learning
about topics related to the universe and its history (INT_UNIV) or related to how science can help prevent
disease (INT_DISEASE). Students were asked to rate their interest in both topics on a four-point Likert
scale, with responses ranging from Not interested to Highly interested. Both measures are ordinal
variables and each participant contributes a pair of scores to the data, so a non-parametric test of
difference is an appropriate method to use to explore differences in the distribution of responses on the
two topics.

The first SPSS

output table
contains a
summary of the
rankings for the
difference
variable. Here
observations are
split into three
types depending on whether the value of INT_UNIV is bigger than INT_DISEASE (negative ranks), the value
of INT_DISEASE is bigger than INT_UNIV (positive ranks), and finally where both variables take the same
value (ties).

The Wilcoxon test works by firstly assigning a sign (or a tie) to the difference between each pair of
observations. Here we have worked on INT_DISEASE - INT_UNIV so that positive ranks are when
INT_DISEASE > INT_UNIV. Here we see that there are 1265 negative ranks, 1142 positive ranks and 2323
ties.

Having worked out which observed pairs result in which sign for their difference, the magnitude
(excluding the sign) of these differences is calculated and these are then ranked in order (excluding ties).
We now see that the total of the ranks for the negative differences is 1482167.00 resulting in a mean rank
of 1171.67 whilst the total of the ranks for the positive differences is 1415861.00 resulting in a mean rank
of 1239.81. Here the mean of the positive ranks is larger than that for negative ranks suggesting that
values for INT_DISEASE are generally larger than for INT_UNIV.

Table 2 consists of test

statistics and their
significance as calculated
in several ways. We are
considering the Wilcoxon
statistic which is
calculated from the ranks
and is not shown
explicitly by SPSS but is
used to calculate a Z
score. Here we see that Z
= -1.018 and this can be compared with a standard normal distribution to test whether there are
significant differences between the groups.

Here we see that the p value (quoted next to Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)) is .309 which is greater than 0.05 and
therefore we cannot reject the null hypothesis that the medians of the two groups are the same. The
normal approximation used above is only an approximation to the p value and it is possible to construct
the exact p value. This is given in the next row and we see that the exact p value is .309 whilst the
asymptotic p value is .309. The exact p value agrees with the asymptotic p value that the null hypothesis
cannot be rejected.
 A comparison of the mean of the distribution of the variables INT_UNIV and INT_DISEASE was desired but
due to the non-normality of the variables a Wilcoxon signed rank test was carried out. The mean of the
positive ranks is larger than that for negative ranks suggesting that values for INT_DISEASE are generally
larger than for INT_UNIV. The Wilcoxon Signed rank test results in a Z statistic of -1.018 which results in an
exact p value of .309. This is not significant and we cannot reject the null hypothesis of equal medians for
the 2 variables.

C. Wilcoxon rank sum test

D. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test
E. Sign test
F. Median test
G. Spearman rank order correlation
H. Kruskal-Wallis test
I. Kendall Coefficient of concordance

References
 Catane, Juliet A. (2002). Conducting Research: A Practical Application. JMC Press, Inc. Quezon City
 Mann-Whitney U Test using SPSS Statistics. Leard Statistics. https://bitly.ws/32U9S
 Milenovic, Zivorad M. (2010). Application of Mann-Whitney U Test in Research of Professional Training of Primary
School Teachers. https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/106020
 Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test using SPSS Statistics. Leard Statistics. https://bitly.ws/332oN
 Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test practical. The British Academy. https://bitly.ws/332tp

Activity
Research on how to interpret the below tables. Provide a not less than three paragraphs explanation of a table.
Your set will be based from your class number, if it’s odd, answer the table on Wilcoxon Signed test otherwise,
the Spearman Rho correlation.
Have your (a) presentation of the findings, (b) supported/refuted literature, and (c) the implication of the results.
These tables were taken from Gabriel, et.al. (2023) entitled The Level of Social Media Platforms Usage and the
Level of Homophobism among Grade 12 Students. It will be graded based on the following: narrative
presentation – 8, and accuracy – 7.

SET A

SET B