Non-parametric statistics

By
Dr Noha Saleh
 Non-parametric tests
Parametric’ tests involve estimating
parameters such as the mean, and assume
that distribution of sample means are
‘normally’ distributed
Often data does not follow a Normal
distribution.
Parametric Test Procedures
1. Involve Population Parameters
Example: Population Mean
2. Have an Assumptions that data are
Normal Distribution
3. Examples: Z Test, t Test, x2 Test
 Nonparametric Test Procedures
1. Do Not Involve Population Parameters
Used in non normally distributed data

2.Data Measured on Any Scale

Ratio or Interval
Ordinal
 Example: Good-Better-Best
Nominal
 Example: Male-Female
3. Example: Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test
 Advantages of Nonparametric Tests
1. Used With All Scales
2. Easier to Compute
3. Make Fewer Assumptions
4. Need Not Involve Population
Parameters
5. Results May Be as Exact as
Parametric Procedures © 1984-1994 T/Maker Co.
 Ranks
Practical differences between parametric
and NP are that NP methods use the ranks
of values rather than the actual values
E.g.
1,2,3,4,5,7,13,22,38,45 - actual
1,2,3,4,5,6, 7, 8, 9,10 - rank
 Handling ties in ranks
Find the mean of ranks involved and
assign this mean rank to each of the tied
item.
E.g.
3, 5, 5, 10, 12 - actual
1, 2.5, 2.5, 4, 5 - rank
2 and 3 are tied
 Median
The median is the value above and below
which 50% of the data lie.
If the data is ranked in order, it is the middle
value
In symmetric distributions the mean and
median are the same
In skewed distributions, median more
appropriate
 Parametric / Non-parametric
Parametric Tests Non-parametric Tests

Paired sample t-test Paired Wilcoxon-signed rank

2 independent samples t-test Mann-Whitney test(Note: sometimes

called Wilcoxon Rank Sums test!)

One-way Analysis of Variance Kruskal-Wallis

Pearson’s correlation Spearman Rank

Repeated Measures Friedman

Non parametric goodness of Fit Test

There have been numerous methods to determine

goodness of fit or distribution of normality.

One such tests is the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test.

 Kolmogorov-Smirnov
Kolmogorov was a very talented Soviet
mathematician that created this test in the
late 30’s

It is a very popular test because it is

sensitive to both differences in location
(central tendency) and shape (dispersion)
 Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test.
Hypothesis:
H0: observed distribution fit the normal distribution
HA: observed distribution does not fit the normal
distribution .
Test Statistic (D-Statistic)

D  max F0 ( x)  Fe ( x)
Example
Test the normality of this data using
Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test.

0.9, 1.0, 1.9, 2.1, 2.7, 2.8, 3.2, 3.6, 3.9, 4.2, 5.1
SPSS steps
SPSS steps
SPSS steps