General

This page was made to cover some of the frequently asked questions that we receive at the Statistics and Methodology Advice Point for students and PhD candidates of Pedagogical Sciences and Education and Psychology. At the moment the section on regression analysis is finished. We will post new sections on other analyses in the future.

Please note that this FAQ section was created with care but recommendations are not always straightforward. Sometimes opinions differ and there can be complicated discussions with pros and cons that don’t fit in a simple question–answer format. Therefore you may come across different solutions than the ones we give here.

If you still have unanswered questions left after checking the FAQ and you are a RU student or PhD student of Pedagogical Science and Education or Psychology, you are welcome to approach SMAP with your question (see for more information our website in Dutch or English).

First, make an overview of your variables, with their level of measurement: categorical (also called nominal or qualitative) ordinal or continuous (also called interval , ratio or quantitative). Identify which variables are your DV(s), IV(s), and possibly which IV(s) have the role of moderator or mediator.

Based on this you can decide which analysis you need. You can use the flowchart in the back of the statistics book by Andy Field for this or the tables with analyses in the chapter Overview of Designs and Analyses in the statistics book by Jules Ellis.

Make sure that you perform the right checks, such as testing of assumptions and influential cases (each analysis has its own assumptions).

You may need to go through these steps multiple times, especially if you have multiple research questions. But sometimes you can answer multiple research questions with one analysis, or you need several analyses to answer one research question.