Statistical Decision Making

AQ054-3-M and Version 3

Statistical Test
 Topic & Structure of The Lesson

 Normality Test
 Outlier Detection
 Reliability Test
 SPSS Application

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 Learning Outcomes

• At the end of this topic, You should be able

to
 do normality test, outlier detection and reliability test to
measure or attribute of a population based upon analysis
of sample data.
 use statistical packages such as SPSS to conduct the
testing and interpret the results

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 Key Terms You Must Be Able To
Use
• If you have mastered this topic, you should be able to use the following
terms correctly in your assignments and exams:

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 Normality Test

• An assessment of the normality of data is

a prerequisite for many statistical tests
because normal data is an underlying
assumption in parametric testing.

• There are two main methods of assessing

normality: graphically and numerically.

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 Normality Test

• Assumes, if your sample is normal shape, 
the population from which it came is
normally distributed –
Then you can assume normality
• A significant test means the sample distrib
ution is not shaped like a normal curve
• Shapiro Wilks W test is the one we will use
most

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 Normality Test

• H0: The observed distribution fits the

normal
• H1:The observed distribution does not fit 
the normal distribution
• If we accept the H0, we accept/assume
normality

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 Normality Test

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 Normality Test

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 Normality Test

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 Outlier Detection

• Outlier detection is both easy and difficult.

• It is easy since there are several relatively

straightforward tests for the presence of
outliers.

• It is difficult since there are no firm rules as

to when outlier removal is appropriate.

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 Outlier Detection

• Outliers may be due to:

– Chance.
– Measurement error.
– Experimental error.

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 Outlier Detection

• Outliers in statistical analyses are extreme

values that do not seem to fit with the majority of
a data set.

• If not removed, these extreme values can have

a large effect on any conclusions that might be
drawn from the data in question, because they
can skew correlation coefficients and lines of
best fit in the wrong direction.

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 Outlier Detection

• Can use histogram, box plot or stem and

leaf to identify the outliers

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 Reliability Test
• Cronbach's alpha is the most common
measure of internal consistency
("reliability").
• It is most commonly used when you have
multiple Likert questions in a survey/
questionnaire that form a scale and wish
to determine if the scale is reliable.
• If you are concerned with inter-rater
reliability
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 Reliability Test

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 Reliability Test

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 Reliability Test

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 Reliability Test

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 Reliability Test

• From our example, we can see that Cronbach's alpha is

0.805, which indicates a high level of internal
consistency for our scale with this specific sample.

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 Reliability Test

• This column presents the value that Cronbach's alpha

would be if that particular item was deleted from the
scale.

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 Reliability Test

• Removal of any question, except question 8, would

result in a lower Cronbach's alpha.

• Removal of question 8 would lead to a small

improvement in Cronbach's alpha, and can see that the
"Corrected Item-Total Correlation" value was low
(0.128) for this item.

• This might lead to consider whether should remove this

item.

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 Reliability Test

• Cronbach's alpha simply provides you with an overall

reliability coefficient for a set of variables (e.g.,
questions).

• If your questions reflect different underlying personal

qualities (or other dimensions), for example, employee
motivation and employee commitment, Cronbach's alpha
will not be able to distinguish between these.

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 Quick Review Question

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 Summary of Main Teaching Points

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 Question and Answer Session

Q&A

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 What we will cover next

Regression Analysis

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