Eiselen, Roald, and Van Huyssteen, Gerhard B. 2023. A comparison of statistical tests for Likert-type data: The case of swearwords. Journal of Open Humanties Data 9:1–13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/johd.132.
Eiselen & Van Huyssteen 2023
English: Likert-type data, swearing, swearword, Afrikaans, statistical comparison
Afrikaans: Afrikaans, Likert-agtige data, statistiese vergelyking, vloek, vloekwoord
English: There has been a long-standing debate about the applicability of different statistical tests to Likert-type data. This work contributes to this debate by comparing the results of three statistics, Analysis of Variance, Kruskal-Wallis H test, and ordinal logistic regression, in the context of self-reported attitude and usage of swearwords. The aims of this comparison are to determine how similar the results of the different statistics are, which of the statistical test are most appropriate for sociopragmatic linguistic investigations, and how the results influence the interpretation possibilities of the same data. An analysis of the results for the different statistics shows some overlap between the three statistics, but that the parametric ANOVA is substantially more conservative in identifying significant relationships between sociodemographic factors and the usage and attitude toward swearwords, while the H test and ordinal logistic regression models are mostly identical, except where the assumptions of the regression model are violated. Based on our results, we argue that the Kruskal-Wallis H test, with the associated post-hoc test, is the most appropriate test for Likert-type data, with sufficient descriptive power to allow for detailed and informed analysis of this data.
Afrikaans: Daar heers ‘n lang debat oor die toepaslikheid van verskillende statistiese toetse met Likert-agtige data. Hierdie artikel dra tot hierdie debat by deur die resultate van drie statistieke, variansieanalise, Kruskal-Wallis H-toets en ordinale logistiese regressie, te vergelyk in die konteks van selfgerapporteerde houdings en gebruikspatrone van vloekwoorde. Die doel van hierdie vergelyking is om te bepaal hoe eenders die resultate van die verskillende statistieke is, watter van die statistiese toetse die geskikste is vir sosiopragmatiese taalkundeondersoeke, en hoe die resultate die interpretasiemoontlikhede van dieselfde data beïnvloed. ‘n Ontleding van die resultate vir die verskillende statistieke toon ‘n mate van oorvleueling tussen die drie statistieke, maar dat die parametriese ANOVA aansienlik meer konserwatief is in die identifisering van betekenisvolle verwantskappe tussen sosiodemografiese faktore en die gebruik van en houding teenoor vloekwoorde, terwyl die H-toets en ordinale logistiese regressiemodelle meestal identies is, behalwe waar die aannames van die regressiemodel oortree word. Gebaseer op ons resultate, argumenteer ons dat die Kruskal-Wallis H-toets, met die gepaardgaande post-hoc-toets, die geskikste toets vir Likert-agtige data is, met voldoende beskrywende krag om voorsiening te maak vir gedetailleerde en ingeligte ontleding van sulke data.
In: English
On: Afrikaans