Data Analysis

There are many different ways to analyze high quality data. A few broad analytical categories are described below.

Descriptive analysis

Descriptive analysis aims to provide a quantitative summary of a data set. In statistical reporting on human subjects, descriptive analysis might include the overall sample size and sample sizes of key subgroups. It might include calculations such as median, mean, and mode as measures of central tendency, and standard deviation as a measure of variability.

Inferential analysis

Inferential analysis is aimed at testing hypotheses about a population. In this context, a population isn’t necessarily a group of people; it may be any set of similar objects or events. Statistical methods are used to infer properties of the population based on the sample.

Qualitative analysis

Qualitative analysis aims primarily at understanding a phenomenon, rather than predicting and testing hypotheses. Examples of qualitative analytical methods include grounded theory analysis and various forms of content analysis, including text mining.