Choosing the Correct Statistical Test in SAS, Stata, SPSS and R
As long as you can identify the number and type of independent and dependent variables you have, you can determine an appropriate statistical test for your SoTL data! There can also be multiple appropriate ways to analyze a given data set, and so if you are new to quantitative analysis, consider this a starting place for conversation with an expert colleague or statistical consultant.
The following table shows general guidelines for choosing a statistical analysis. We emphasize that these are general guidelines and should not be construed as hard and fast rules. Usually your data could be analyzed in multiple ways, each of which could yield legitimate answers. The table below covers a number of common analyses and helps you choose among them based on the number of dependent variables (sometimes referred to as outcome variables), the nature of your independent variables (sometimes referred to as predictors). You also want to consider the nature of your dependent variable, namely whether it is an interval variable, ordinal or categorical variable, and whether it is normally distributed (see What is the difference between categorical, ordinal and interval variables? for more information on this). The table then shows one or more statistical tests commonly used given these types of variables (but not necessarily the only type of test that could be used) and links showing how to do such tests using SAS, Stata and SPSS.