Introduction to Quantitative Analysis: Visually Displaying Data Results
Introduction to Quantitative Analysis: Visually Displaying Data Results
Data Visualization
Data visualization enhances understanding of the trends and comparisons in any given data presented for analysis and reporting. Data visualization may include tables, graphs, and charts representing data values for analysis (Telea, 2014). This study will look at visual representation for quantitative and qualitative data.
The dataset used in this study is the Afrobarometer dataset, where two variables were chosen for the discussion at hand. Level of democracy: today (Q46a) was sued as the quantitative variable reporting the participants’ score on their ranks of democracy in general. High scores of democracies imply a more democratic nation, while low scores imply a lesser democratic nation. People must obey the law (Q48b) was used as our categorical variable with five levels, that is 1) strongly disagree, 2) disagree, 3) neither agree nor disagree, 4) agree, and 5) strongly agree. This reports the perception of participants on the laws guiding their countries.
The mean for the ages of participants was reported, as shown in table 1. The table shows that the mean of the ages of participants was 37.39, which is approximately 37 years.
Table 1: Ages descriptive statistics
Visual representation depends on the level of measurements of the variables given. Qualitative data is well-represented with pie charts and bar graphs. Quantitative data are well-represented will histograms, line graphs, and bar charts (Aparicio & Costa, 2015). In this study, the level of democracy: today (Q46a) is visually presented using a histogram since it is numerical. People must obey the law (Q48b) is categorical, and a pie chart with percentages of each group of the variable best represents this variable.
Figure 1 shows the histogram representing the level of democracy: today (Q46a).
Figure1: Level of democracy: today histogram
Most of the people reported a level of democracy of 5 and 10. This shows that most participants rated the level of democracy to be five, which is almost the mean of the levels of democracy.
Figure 2 shows the pie chart representing the participants’ opinions on obeying the law of their respective nations.
Figure 2: People must obey the law pie chart (Warner, 2020).
According to the analysis, many participants (47.13%) agreed that they must obey the law. The second-highest percent (32.65%) was for the participants who strongly agree that they must abide by the law. 9.76% disagreed, 5.58% neither agreed nor disagreed, and 4.88% strongly disagreed on obeying the law.
The analysis shows that the level of democracy today was reported by many participants to be average. The respective countries must strategize on creating a democratic nation where all the citizens believe in it. For obedience to the law, many participants reported that they understand they must obey the law. However, some thought that obeying rules was not significant. These are the type of citizens who are most likely found breaking the laws. Measures should be taken to sensitize on the importance of obeying the country’s laws.
Reference
Aparicio, M., & Costa, C. J. (2015). Data visualization. Communication design quarterly review, 3(1), 7-11.
Telea, A. C. (2014). Data visualization: principles and practice. CRC Press.
Warner, R. M. (2020). Applied statistics II: Multivariable and multivariate techniques. SAGE Publications, Incorporated.
