Analyzing Data

How to conduct statistical tests...

• How do I choose the appropriate statistical test for my data?
• How do I create dummy variables?
• How do I control for familywise error?
• How do I conduct a meta-analysis?
• Other questions about meta-analyses?
• How do I conduct meditational analysis?

How to test interactions?

• What is an Interaction?
• Interaction between two continuous variables
• Interaction between categorical and continuous variables

How to transform continuous into categorical variables

• Why transform continuous variables into categorical variables?
• How to dichotomize variables?
• Why cut into thirds or fourths instead of dichotomizing?

How to create composites

• How do I create a composite of items?
• Why create a composite of items?
• How do I know when it is appropriate to create a composite?
• How do I create a composite with items with different scale ranges?
• How do I create a composite with items labeled in opposite directions?

How to detect and deal with outliers

• What are outliers?
• Should I check for outliers?
• How can I tell if outliers are influencing my data?
• How do I detect univariate outliers in my data?
• How do I detect bivariate and multivariate outliers in my data?
• How do I deal with outliers?

Other types of practical questions...

• When to use a one-tailed versus two-tailed test?
• When to use univariate versus multivariate statistics?
• If my correlational data is not linear, what do I do?
• What are some overall tips/tricks when analyzing data?
• What is considered marginally significant?
• What is the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics?
• What is the difference between a type I and type II error?
• How is a correlation different than a partial correlation?
• What are the criticisms of hypothesis testing?
• What is the purpose of graphing a scatterplot?
• Why would you want to use a computational model?
• What is the purpose of graphing a scatterplot?
• Why is linearity important?
• Want help using SPSS?
• Why use syntax in SPSS?

Data Screening

• What is the purpose of data screening/cleaning?
• What are the best tips/tricks for data cleaning?
• How to check for data entry errors?

Missing Values

• Why do missing values occur?
• Why is missing data a problem?
• How do I identify if missing values are random or non-random?
• How do I deal with missing data?

Normality

• What is "normality"?
  
• Why is normality important?
  
• How do I determine whether my data are normal?
  
• How do I deal with non-normality?
  
• How do I transform variables?