The president of a state university collected data from students concerning building a new library, and classified the responses into different categories (strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree, strongly disagree) and according to whether the student was male or female. To determine whether the data provide sufficient evidence to indicate that the responses depend upon gender, the most appropriate test is:
A) chi-square goodness-of-fit test
B) chi-square test of a contingency table (test of independence)
C) chi-square test of normality
D) none of these
E) all of these

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The most appropriate test to determine whether the responses depend upon gender is the chi-square test of a contingency table, also known as the test of independence. This test compares the observed frequency of each category for males and females to the expected frequency if there was no relationship between gender and response. The chi-square goodness-of-fit test would only be appropriate if the data were collected from one group and compared to expected frequencies based on a specific distribution. The chi-square test of normality would only be appropriate if the data were being tested for normality. None of these tests are appropriate for testing whether the data provide evidence that the responses depend upon gender, except for the chi-square test of a contingency table. Therefore, the answer is only B.

The President of a State University Collected Data from Students