Chapter 7 Exploring data
Exploratory data analysis (EDA) is a fancy name for an ordinary, but important phase of any data analysis.
From a technical viewpoint, EDA is where our skills in transforming, reshaping, and visualizing data (e.g., using base R functions and additional tools from the dplyr, tidyr, and ggplot2 packages) meet so that we become familiar with a dataset.
Preparation
Recommended readings for this chapter include:
of the ds4psy book (Neth, 2022a), and the corresponding chapter
of the r4ds book (Wickham & Grolemund, 2017).
Preflections
Before reading, please take some time to reflect upon the following questions:
What are the first steps of any data analysis?
Which questions should we always ask before conducting any statistical test?
What is the difference between generating and testing hypotheses?