One-Way ANOVA
One-Way ANOVA ("analysis of variance") compares the means of two or more
independent groups in order to determine whether there is statistical evidence
that the associated population means are significantly different. One-Way ANOVA
is a parametric test.
This test is also known as:
One-Factor ANOVA
One-Way Analysis of Variance
Between Subjects ANOVA
The variables used in this test are known as:
Dependent variable
Independent variable (also known as the grouping variable, or factor)
This variable divides cases into two or more mutually
exclusive levels, or groups
Common Uses
The One-Way ANOVA is often used to analyze data from the following types of
studies:
Field studies
Experiments
Quasi-experiments
The One-Way ANOVA is commonly used to test the following:
Statistical differences among the means of two or more groups
Statistical differences among the means of two or more interventions
Statistical differences among the means of two or more change scores
Note: Both the One-Way ANOVA and the Independent Samples t Test can
compare the means for two groups. However, only the One-Way ANOVA can
compare the means across three or more groups.
Note: If the grouping variable has only two groups, then the results of a one-way
ANOVA and the independent samples t test will be equivalent. In fact, if you run
both an independent samples t test and a one-way ANOVA in this situation, you
2
should be able to confirm that t =F.
Data Requirements
Your data must meet the following requirements:
1. Dependent variable that is continuous (i.e., interval or ratio level)
2. Independent variable that is categorical (i.e., two or more groups)
3. Cases that have values on both the dependent and independent variables
4. Independent samples/groups (i.e., independence of observations)
1. There is no relationship between the subjects in each sample. This
means that:
1. subjects in the first group cannot also be in the second group
2. no subject in either group can influence subjects in the other
group
3. no group can influence the other group
5. Random sample of data from the population
6. Normal distribution (approximately) of the dependent variable for each
group (i.e., for each level of the factor)
1. Non-normal population distributions, especially those that are thick-
tailed or heavily skewed, considerably reduce the power of the test
2. Among moderate or large samples, a violation of normality may yield
fairly accurate p values
7. Homogeneity of variances (i.e., variances approximately equal across
groups)
1. When this assumption is violated and the sample sizes differ among
groups, the p value for the overall F test is not trustworthy. These
conditions warrant using alternative statistics that do not assume
equal variances among populations, such as the Browne-Forsythe or
Welch statistics (available via Options in the One-Way ANOVA dialog
box).
2. When this assumption is violated, regardless of whether the group
sample sizes are fairly equal, the results may not be trustworthy for
post hoc tests. When variances are unequal, post hoc tests that do
not assume equal variances should be used (e.g., Dunnett’s C).
8. No outliers
Note: When the normality, homogeneity of variances, or outliers assumptions for
One-Way ANOVA are not met, you may want to run the nonparametric Kruskal-
Wallis test instead.
Researchers often follow several rules of thumb for one-way ANOVA:
Each group should have at least 6 subjects (ideally more; inferences for the
population will be more tenuous with too few subjects)
Balanced designs (i.e., same number of subjects in each group) are ideal;
extremely unbalanced designs increase the possibility that violating any of
the requirements/assumptions will threaten the validity of the
ANOVA F test
Hypotheses
The null and alternative hypotheses of one-way ANOVA can be expressed as:
H0: µ1 = µ2 = µ3 = ... = µk ("all k population means are equal")
H1: At least one µi different ("at least one of the k population means is not equal
to the others")
where
th
µi is the population mean of the i group (i = 1, 2, ..., k)
Note: The One-Way ANOVA is considered an omnibus (Latin for “all”) test
because the F test indicates whether the model is significant overall—i.e.,
whether or not there are any significant differences in the means between any of
the groups. (Stated another way, this says that at least one of the means is
different from the others.) However, it does not indicate which mean is different.
Determining which specific pairs of means are significantly different requires
either contrasts or post hoc (Latin for “after this”) tests.
Test Statistic
The test statistic for a One-Way ANOVA is denoted as F. For an independent
variable with k groups, the F statistic evaluates whether the group means are
significantly different. Because the computation of the F statistic is slightly more
involved than computing the paired or independent samples t test statistics, it's
extremely common for all of the F statistic components to be depicted in a table
like the following:
Sum of Squares df Mean Square F
Treatment SSR df
r MSR MSR/MSE
Error SSE df
e MSE
Total SST df
T
where
SSR = the regression sum of squares
SSE = the error sum of squares
SST = the total sum of squares (SST = SSR + SSE)
dfr = the model degrees of freedom (equal to dfr = k - 1)
dfe = the error degrees of freedom (equal to dfe = n - k)
k = the total number of groups (levels of the independent variable)
n = the total number of valid observations
dfT = the total degrees of freedom (equal to dfT = dfr + dfe = n - 1)
MSR = SSR/dfr = the regression mean square
MSE = SSE/dfe = the mean square error
Then the F statistic itself is computed as
F=MSRMSEF=MSRMSE
Note: In some texts you may see the notation df1 or ν1 for the regression degrees
of freedom, and df2 or ν2 for the error degrees of freedom. The latter notation
uses the Greek letter nu (ν) for the degrees of freedom.
Some texts may use "SSTr" (Tr = "treatment") instead of SSR (R = "regression"),
and may use SSTo (To = "total") instead of SST.
The terms Treatment (or Model) and Error are the terms most commonly used in
natural sciences and in traditional experimental design texts. In the social
sciences, it is more common to see the terms Between groups instead of
"Treatment", and Within groups instead of "Error". The between/within
terminology is what SPSS uses in the one-way ANOVA procedure.
Data Set-Up
Your data should include at least two variables (represented in columns) that will
be used in the analysis. The independent variable should be categorical (nominal
or ordinal) and include at least two groups, and the dependent variable should be
continuous (i.e., interval or ratio). Each row of the dataset should represent a
unique subject or experimental unit.
