Chapter Summary

With chi-square and Cramer’s V, we compare the observed frequencies in the cells of a contingency table with what we would expect to see if the two variables are independent. Chi-square is a measure of statistical significance. It answers the question, “Is there a relationship between our dependent variable and our independent variable?” Cramer’s V is a measure of substantive significance. It answers the question, “How strong does the relationship appear to be?”

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should:

• Know the difference between contingent and independent events
• Understand the expected value for two independent events
• Be able to calculate and interpret the chi-square for a table
• Be able to calculate and interpret Cramer’s V for a table
• Know how to get the statistics for contingency tables in SPSS