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MODULE 9

Correspondence Analysis

Correspondence analysis is appropriate when attempting to determine the proximal relationships among two or more categorical variables. Using correspondence a categorical variables is analogous to using correlation analysis and principal components analysis for continuous or nearly continuous variables. They provide the research with insight as to the relat
categories on empirically derived dimensions.

dimensions or eigenvectors underlying them. A key part of correspondence analysis is the multi-dimensional map produced as part of the output. The correspondence map allows researchers to visualize the relationships among categories spatially on dimensional axes; in other word

Unlike correlation, correspondence analysis is nonparametric and does not offer a statistical significance test because it is not based on a distribution (or distributio Comparison of different models (e.g. different variables entered/removed) should be done with categorical or logistic regression. Again, correspondence analysis re variables only. Correspondence analysis accepts nominal variables, ordinal variables, and/or discretized interval - ratio variables (e.g. quartiles), although creating d from a continuous variable is generally discouraged.

For the duration of this tutorial we will be using the IntroPsych_Fall2009.sav file; which is fictitious and contains 1500 participants' responses on the following var (sequential numbers which identify each participant); sex; age; family_income (four income brackets); HS_GPA (high school grade point average brackets); IQ (in by the Wechsler-Adult Intelligence Scale version IV); class_standing (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior); drinks_week (number of alcoholic drinks consumed in confidence (self rating of how much confidence the student has in their ability to achieve desired grades in college courses [possible range: 0-20]); hardworker (sel effort the student puts toward their college classes [possible range: 0-20]); number_grade (numeric course grade for the Introduction to Psychology course); final_g grade for the Introduction to Psychology course). 1.) The first example will explore a 2 way relationship between the 4 categories of family_income and the 4 categories of class_standing. We would expect weak family income and the members of each class; for example, family income should have no relation with a student being a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior. Begin by clicking on Analyze, Data Reduction, Correspondence Analysis...