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Asurveycollectedinformationabouthowmuchstudentsspendwhenbuyingpresents
fordifferentpeople.Eachstudentrecordedtheamounttheywouldspendonapresent
forapartnerandalsowhenbuyingapresentforafriendofthesamesex.In
evolutionaryterms,wemightexpectstudentstospendmoreonthe(potential)
mothers/fathersoftheirchildrenthanonfriendsofthesamesex.
Toseehowtypicalspendingdifferswhenbuyingpresentsforpartnersratherthan
friendsinvolvesmakingacomparisonbetweentwosetsofmeasurements.The
dependentvariable,ormeasurementbeingcompared,iespending,isquantitative.The
comparisonismadebetweenpairedorrelatedsamplessincethesameindividuals
providedataonspendingonfriendsandpartners.Initiallythiswouldsuggestapairedt
testbutthisisaparametrictestandassumesthatthevariable
partvfriend=spendingonpartnerspendingonfriend
isNormallydistributed.Thediagrambelowplotsthedifferenceinspendingonpresents
forpartnersandfriendsforthestudentsinthesample.Youcanseethatthedistribution
isskewedandsodoesnotsupporttheassumptionthatthedifferencesareNormally
distributed.
14
12
Frequency
10
2
Mean=44.00
Std.Dev.=42.61317
N=35
0
0.00
50.00
100.00
150.00
partvfriedn
TheWilcoxontestisasuitabletesttousebecause:
(1)twopaired/relatedsamplesarebeingcompared(thesamepeopleansweredboth
questions)
(2)althoughthemeasurementbeingcompared(spending)isquantitativeitdoesnot
meettheassumptionsrequiredbyaparametrictest
Thetesthypothesesare:
Null(H0):medianspendingisthesamewhenbuyingpresentsforfriendsorpartners
Alternative(H1):medianspendingisnotthesamewhenbuyingpresentsforfriendsor
partners
WithSPSS,thetestoutputis:
NParTests
WilcoxonSignedRanksTest
Ranks
N
friendpresent
partnerpresent
NegativeRanks
PositiveRanks
Ties
Total
33a
1b
1c
35
MeanRank
17.89
4.50
SumofRanks
590.50
4.50
a. friendpresent<partnerpresent
b. friendpresent>partnerpresent
c.friendpresent=partnerpresent
TestStatisticsb
Z
Asymp.Sig.(2tailed)
friendpre
sent
partnerpr
esent
5.016a
.000
a. Basedonpositiveranks.
b. WilcoxonSignedRanksTest
TheteststatisticandthePvalue(labelledAsymp.Sig.(2tailed))areshowninthe
secondtable.ThezvaluemaybereportedbutonlythePvalueisneededtodecidethe
conclusion.SPSSdisplaysthePvaluetothreedecimalplacesothatverysmallP
valuesappearas0.000.Thesearenotreportedas0butas<0.001.
Inthiscase,P<0.001issmallerthan0.05hencethenullhypothesisisrejected.
Thehypothesistestallowsyoutosay:
Thedataprovidesstatisticallysignificantevidencethatstudentsmedianspendingon
partnersdiffersfrommedianspendingonfriendsofthesamesex(Wilcoxon,z=5.016,
P<0.001).
Note.AlternativeuseofWilcoxontest
AnothersituationinwhichtheWilcoxontestcanbeusedisforcomparingtworelatedor
pairedsampleswhenthevariablebeingcomparedbetweensamples(dependent
variable)isordinal.