Measures of Association

Researchers rely upon measures of association when they are interested in understanding the relationship between two variables. For example, you may be interested in the relationship between years of education and likelihood of finding a job. As the number of years of education increase, does the likelihood of finding a job also increase? These questions are best answered by using measures of association. There are several different measures of association; the selection of the correct measure of association depends upon the purpose of research for evaluation. Once you know the purpose, you can use four criteria to help select the best measure. The criteria, described in Chapter 13 of your textbook, are as follows: level of measurement, assignment of values to null and perfect relationships, the measure’s sensitivity, and familiarity with the statistic. Common measures of association, explained in your textbook, include lambda, gamma, Cramer’s V, tau, and Somers’ d.

Assignment:

1.Pick a public or non profit organization
2. Write one purpose for which measures of association might be used in that organization.
3.Explain which measure(s) of association you would use for that purpose and how the four criteria guided you to make that selection.