Quantitative Methods - Frequency, Cross-Tabulation, and T-Tests - Assignment Example

Quantitative research studies involve the collection of data from a given sample. The data is usually numerical or one that can be coded (Myers, Well, & Lorch, 2010). The quantitative research approach uses either primary or secondary data. Primary data is obtained from participants through interviews, questionnaires, and observations whereas secondary data are obtained from secondary sources such as journal articles, websites, and books (Pedhazur & Schmelkin, 2013). This research will employ questionnaires to collect primary data for the purpose of achieving its main aim.

There are different statistical applications or techniques for analyzing numerical data. SPSS is one of the statistical applications used in conducting data analysis. SPSS is a software package that analyzes different numerical data (Miller & Acton, 2009). SPSS is useful in predicting with confidence what is likely to happen based on the numerical information collected (Mitchell & Jolley, 2012). This research study will employ SPSS to analyze the numerical data with an aim of understanding and predicting the perceptions and behaviors of tourists. In doing SPSS, there is a need to code the primary data, especially in cases where the data provided options that are qualitative (Myers, Well, & Lorch, 2010). This research study will code the data obtained from the questionnaires, entered the coded data in the SPSS software, and conduct the analysis.

During the analysis, the research study will look for frequency, cross-tabulation, and t-tests. Frequency refers to the number of times an event occurs within a given period. Frequency also refers to the number of times a given question is answered (Creswell, 2013). In this research study, the SPSS software will be used in obtaining the number of responses to a given question. For instance, if a question asks for a “yes” or “no” answers, the frequency will identify how many respondents agree with the question as opposed to the number of respondents that disagree with the question (Myers, Well, & Lorch, 2010). Frequency in this study will be used to understand the perceptions of tourists. The other concept is cross-tabulation. Cross tabulation is a statistical process that aims at providing a summary of a given set of data or results; hence, developing a contingency table (Miller & Acton, 2009). This study will use cross-tabulation to summarize the frequencies and develop a table for better illustration. Lastly, this study will employ a t-test. A t-test is a statistical technique for testing whether the means of two samples are significantly different based on the assumption that the sample statistics follow a student’s-t distribution when the hypothesis is tested (Pedhazur & Schmelkin, 2013). In this respect, the t-test is used to identify whether samples are different. This study will use the t-test to compare the means of various pairs of the data such as gender versus income, gender versus the origin, and gender versus age amongst others.