Sei sulla pagina 1di 3

STATISTICS

- A branch of mathematics dealing with the collection, analysis, interpretation,


and presentation of masses of numerical data
- A collection of quantitative data
- A form of mathematical analysis that uses quantified models, representations
and synopses for a given set of experimental data or real-life studies.

DATA information gathered from sample


Qualitative Data
- Non-numerical
- Information about qualities; information that can't actually be
measured.
- sometimes referred to as categorical data
- Examples: gender, socio-economic status, religious preference, color
Quantitative Data
- Number
- acquired through counting or measuring
- Examples: scores on achievement tests, number of hours of study, or
weight of a subject

VARIABLE a characteristic or property of a population or sample which makes the


members different from each other
TYPES OF VARIABLE (BASED ON VALUES)

Discrete Variable
- Finite number (whole number), countable
- Example: money
Continuous Variable
- Infinite values within a specified interval
- Measurable
- Example: weight, age
Discrete vs Continuous variables: Steps
Step 1: Figure out how long it would take you to sit down and count out the possible
values of your variable. For example, if your variable is Temperature in Arizona,
how long would it take you to write every possible temperature? It would take you
literally forever:
50, 50.1, 50.11, 50.111, 50.1111,
If you start counting now and never, ever, ever finish (i.e. the numbers go on and on
until infinity), you have whats called a continuous variable.
If your variable is Number of Planets around a star, then you can count all of the
numbers out (there cant be an infinite number of planets). That is a discrete
variable.
Step 2: Think about hidden numbers that you havent considered. For example: is
time a discrete or continuous variable? You might think its continuous (after all,
time goes on forever, right?) but if were thinking about numbers on a wristwatch
(or a stop watch), those numbers are limited by the numbers or number of decimal
places that a manufacturer has decided to put into the watch. Its unlikely that
youll be given an ambiguous question like this in your elementary stats class but
its worth thinking about!
TYPES OF VARIABLE (FUNCTIONAL RELATION)

Dependent Variable
- Affected/influenced by another variable (measured)
Independent Variable
- One who affects/influence (manipulated)
Example: The effect of revision time and intelligence on the test performance of the
100 students
Dependent Variable: Test Mark (measured from 0 to 100)
Independent Variables: Revision time (measured in hours) Intelligence (measured
using IQ score)

SCALES OF MEASUREMENT

Nominal Level/Scale
- Equal, no order/ranking
- could simply be called labels
- Example: jersey number, student ID number
Ordinal Level/Scale
- Can be ranked/ordered
- differences between values are meaningless
- Example: 1-4, ok-unhappy
Interval Level/Scale
- Zero has a value
- can be ordered and the exact differences between the values can be
meaningfully calculated
- lacks a starting point
- Example: temperature
Ratio Level/Scale
- Absolute zero point
- tell us about the order, they tell us the exact value between units, AND
they also have an absolute zero
- Example: students allowance, height, weight
http://www.mymarketresearchmethods.com/types-of-data-nominal-ordinal-interval-
ratio/

BRANCHES OF STATISTICS

Descriptive Statistics
- Collecting, organizing, describing data
- uses the data to provide descriptions of the population, either through
numerical calculations or graphs or tables
- Measures of central tendency include the mean, median and mode,
while measures of variability include the standard deviation or
variance, the minimum and maximum variables, and the kurtosis and
skewness.
- Example: GPA (mean)
Inferential Statistics
- Small portion from a large group or drawing of conclusions based on
random sample
- makes inferences and predictions about a population based on a
sample of data taken from the population in question
- Example:
https://statistics.laerd.com/statistical-guides/descriptive-inferential-statistics.php
http://www.mymarketresearchmethods.com/descriptive-inferential-statistics-
difference/

Potrebbero piacerti anche