𝟐

CHI-SQUARE (𝒙 )
 The Chi-square (Greek letter chi, 𝒙𝟐 ) is the
most commonly used method of
comparing proportions.
 Particularly useful in tests evaluating a
relationship between nominal or ordinal
data.
 Typical situations or settings are cases
where persons, events, or objects are
grouped in two or more nominal
categories such as “Yes- No” responses,
“Favor-Againsts-Undecided” or class A, B,
C, or D”.
 Chi-square analysis compares the observed
frequencies of the responses with the expected
frequencies. It is a measure of actual divergence
of the observed and expected frequencies. It is
given by the formula:
(𝑭𝒐 − 𝑭𝒆 )𝟐
𝒙=
𝑭𝒆

Where: 𝑭𝒐 = 𝒐𝒃𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒏𝒐. 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒔

𝑭𝒆 = 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒏𝒐. 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒔
CHI-SQUARE AND GOODNESS OF
FIT: ONE SAMPLE CASE
 The data are expressed in frequencies (𝑭𝒐 ) are
compared to the frequencies expected (𝑭𝒆 ) on the
basis of some hypothesis.
 If the differences between the observed and the
expected frequencies are small, 𝒙𝟐 will be small.
The greater the difference between the observed
and expected frequencies under the null
hypothesis, the greater or larger the 𝒙𝟐 will be.
 If the difference between the observed and
expected values are so large collectively as to
occur by chance only, say 0.05 or less, when the
null hypothesis is true then the null hypothesis is
rejected.
Illustration
Consider the nomination of three (3)
presidential candidates of a political
party. A, B, and C. The chairman
wonders whether or not they will be
equally popular among the members od
the party. From this the hypothesis of
equal preference, a random sample of
315men were selected and interviewed
which one of the three candidates they
prefer.
The following are the results of
the survey

Candidates Frequency

A 98

B 115

C 102
 Are you going to reject the null
hypothesis that equal members of
men in the party prefer each of three
candidates? Or are going to accept the
null hypothesis of equality of
preference?
 Calculating the 𝑥 2 value:
𝐹𝑜 𝐹𝑒 𝐹𝑜 − 𝐹𝑒 (𝐹𝑜 − 𝐹𝑒 )2 (𝐹𝑜 − 𝐹𝑒 )2/𝐹𝑒

A 98 105 -7 49 49/100=0.46
7

B 115 105 10 100 100/105=0.9

52

C 102 105 -3 9 9/105=0.56

___________
1.505
 2
[ 𝑓𝑜 − 𝑓 𝑒 ^2
𝑥 =෍ = 1.505
𝑓𝑒
In order to test the significance of the
computed 𝑥 2 value using a specified criterion of
significance, the obtained value is referred to a
table with apopropriate degrees of freedom
which is equal to k-1 , whwre k is equal to the
number of categories of the variable . In this
problem, fd= 3-1= 2. Therefore, for the 𝑥 2 to be
significant at the 0.05 level, the computed value
should be more than (>) the tabular value which
is 5.991.
Chi-square and Goodness of Fit
in SPSS
 To run Chi-square test in SPSS, Click Analyze,
Nonparametric Tests, Legacy Dialog, Chi-
square… on the top menu
Chi-Square as a Test of
Independence : Two Variable Problem
 Chi-square can also be used to test the
significance of the relationship between two
variables when data are expressed in terms of
frequencies occurrence. For this kind of
problem, a two-way contingency table with
rows and column are set up .
 In the case of two variable problems, the
expected frequencies are those predicated on
the independence of the two variables.
Formula:

(𝑟𝑎𝑤𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙)(𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙)
𝐹𝑒 =[ ]
𝑁
Example:

Suppose, one wants to know if there is a

relationship between gender and school choice.
A sample of 100 male freshman students were
asked individually for their school choice. Test
the null hypothesis of no significant relationship
between the students’ gender and school
choice at 5% level of significance.
School Gender TOTAL
Choice

Female Male

Public 42 C1 65 C3 107

Private 58 C2 35 C4 93

TOTAL 100 200

Computational Procedure:

1. Compute the expected frequency of

each cell
2. Present in table form
3. Prepare the hypothesis
4. Decision rule