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DescriptiveStatistics

DescriptiveStatistics
Descriptivestatisticscanbeusefulfortwopurposes:1)toprovidebasicinformationaboutvariablesinadatasetand2)tohighlightpotential
relationshipsbetweenvariables.Thethreemostcommondescriptivestatisticscanbedisplayedgraphicallyorpictoriallyandaremeasuresof:
Graphical/PictorialMethods
MeasuresofCentralTendency
MeasuresofDispersion
MeasuresofAssociation

Graphical/PictorialMethods
Thereareseveralgraphicalandpictorialmethodsthatenhanceresearchers'understandingofindividualvariablesandtherelationshipsbetween
variables.Graphicalandpictorialmethodsprovideavisualrepresentationofthedata.Someofthesemethodsinclude:
Histograms
Scatterplots
GeographicalInformationSystems(GIS)
Sociograms
Histograms
Visuallyrepresentthefrequencieswithwhichvaluesofvariablesoccur
Eachvalueofavariableisdisplayedalongthebottomofahistogram,andabarisdrawnforeachvalue
Theheightofthebarcorrespondstothefrequencywithwhichthatvalueoccurs
Scatterplots
Displaytherelationshipbetweentwoquantitativeornumericvariablesbyplottingonevariableagainstthevalueofanothervariable
Forexample,oneaxisofascatterplotcouldrepresentheightandtheothercouldrepresentweight.Eachpersoninthedatawouldreceiveone
datapointonthescatterplotthatcorrespondstohisorherheightandweight
GeographicInformationSystems(GIS)
AGISisacomputersystemcapableofcapturing,storing,analyzing,anddisplayinggeographicallyreferencedinformationthatis,data
identifiedaccordingtolocation
UsingaGISprogram,aresearchercancreateamaptorepresentdatarelationshipsvisually
Sociograms
Displaynetworksofrelationshipsamongvariables,enablingresearcherstoidentifythenatureofrelationshipsthatwouldotherwisebetoo
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complextoconceptualize
Visitthefollowingwebsitesformoreinformation:
GraphicalAnalyticTechniques
GeographicInformationSystems
Glossarytermsrelatedtographicalandpictorialmethods:
GIS
Histogram
ScatterPlot
Sociogram

MeasuresofCentralTendency
Measuresofcentraltendencyarethemostbasicand,often,themostinformativedescriptionofapopulation'scharacteristics.Theydescribethe
"average"memberofthepopulationofinterest.Therearethreemeasuresofcentraltendency:
Meanthesumofavariable'svaluesdividedbythetotalnumberofvalues
Medianthemiddlevalueofavariable
Modethevaluethatoccursmostoften
Example:
TheincomesoffiverandomlyselectedpeopleintheUnitedStatesare$10,000,$10,000,$45,000,$60,000,and$1,000,000.
MeanIncome=(10,000+10,000+45,000+60,000+1,000,000)/5=$225,000
MedianIncome=$45,000
ModalIncome=$10,000
Themeanisthemostcommonlyusedmeasureofcentraltendency.Mediansaregenerallyusedwhenafewvaluesareextremelydifferentfromthe
restofthevalues(thisiscalledaskeweddistribution).Forexample,themedianincomeisoftenthebestmeasureoftheaverageincomebecause,
whilemostindividualsearnbetween$0and$200,000,ahandfulofindividualsearnmillions.
Visitthefollowingwebsitesformoreinformation:
BasicStatistics
DescriptiveStatistics
MeasuresofPosition
Glossarytermsrelatedtomeasuresofcentraltendency:
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Average
CentralTendency
ConfidenceInterval
Mean
Median
Mode
MovingAverage
PointEstimate
UnivariateAnalysis

MeasuresofDispersion
Measuresofdispersionprovideinformationaboutthespreadofavariable'svalues.Therearefourkeymeasuresofdispersion:
Range
Variance
StandardDeviation
Skew
Rangeissimplythedifferencebetweenthesmallestandlargestvaluesinthedata.Theinterquartilerangeisthedifferencebetweenthevaluesat
the75thpercentileandthe25thpercentileofthedata.
Varianceisthemostcommonlyusedmeasureofdispersion.Itiscalculatedbytakingtheaverageofthesquareddifferencesbetweeneachvalue
andthemean.
Standarddeviation,anothercommonlyusedstatistic,isthesquarerootofthevariance.
Skewisameasureofwhethersomevaluesofavariableareextremelydifferentfromthemajorityofthevalues.Forexample,incomeisskewed
becausemostpeoplemakebetween$0and$200,000,butahandfulofpeopleearnmillions.Avariableispositivelyskewediftheextremevalues
arehigherthanthemajorityofvalues.Avariableisnegativelyskewediftheextremevaluesarelowerthanthemajorityofvalues.
Example:
TheincomesoffiverandomlyselectedpeopleintheUnitedStatesare$10,000,$10,000,$45,000,$60,000,and$1,000,000:
Range=1,000,00010,000=990,000
Variance=[(10,000225,000)2+(10,000225,000)2+(45,000225,000)2+(60,000225,000)2+(1,000,000225,000)2]/5=
150,540,000,000
StandardDeviation=SquareRoot(150,540,000,000)=387,995
Skew=Incomeispositivelyskewed
Visitthefollowingwebsitesformoreinformation:
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DescriptiveStatistics
SurveyResearchTools
VarianceandStandardDeviation
SummarizingandPresentingData
Skewness
SkewnessSimulation
Glossarytermsrelatedtomeasuresofdispersion:
ConfidenceInterval
Distribution
Kurtosis
PointEstimate
Quartiles
Range
Skewness
StandardDeviation
UnivariateAnalysis
Variance

MeasuresofAssociation
Measuresofassociationindicatewhethertwovariablesarerelated.Twomeasuresarecommonlyused:
Chisquare
Correlation
ChiSquare
Asameasureofassociationbetweenvariables,chisquaretestsareusedonnominaldata(i.e.,datathatareputintoclasses:e.g.,gender[male,
female]andtypeofjob[unskilled,semiskilled,skilled])todeterminewhethertheyareassociated*
Achisquareiscalledsignificantifthereisanassociationbetweentwovariables,andnonsignificantifthereisnotanassociation
Totestforassociations,achisquareiscalculatedinthefollowingway:Supposearesearcherwantstoknowwhetherthereisarelationshipbetween
genderandtwotypesofjobs,constructionworkerandadministrativeassistant.Toperformachisquaretest,theresearchercountsupthenumber
offemaleadministrativeassistants,thenumberoffemaleconstructionworkers,thenumberofmaleadministrativeassistants,andthenumberof
maleconstructionworkersinthedata.Thesecountsarecomparedwiththenumberthatwouldbeexpectedineachcategoryiftherewereno
associationbetweenjobtypeandgender(thisexpectedcountisbasedonstatisticalcalculations).Ifthereisalargedifferencebetweentheobserved
valuesandtheexpectedvalues,thechisquaretestissignificant,whichindicatesthereisanassociationbetweenthetwovariables.
*Thechisquaretestcanalsobeusedasameasureofgoodnessoffit,totestifdatafromasamplecomefromapopulationwithaspecific
distribution,asanalternativetoAndersonDarlingandKolmogorovSmirnovgoodnessoffittests.Assuch,thechisquaretestisnotrestrictedto
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nominaldatawithnonbinneddata,however,theresultsdependonhowthebinsorclassesarecreatedandthesizeofthesample
Correlation
Acorrelationcoefficientisusedtomeasurethestrengthoftherelationshipbetweennumericvariables(e.g.,weightandheight)
ThemostcommoncorrelationcoefficientisPearson'sr,whichcanrangefrom1to+1.
Ifthecoefficientisbetween0and1,asonevariableincreases,theotheralsoincreases.Thisiscalledapositivecorrelation.Forexample,height
andweightarepositivelycorrelatedbecausetallerpeopleusuallyweighmore
Ifthecorrelationcoefficientisbetween1and0,asonevariableincreasestheotherdecreases.Thisiscalledanegativecorrelation.For
example,ageandhourssleptpernightarenegativelycorrelatedbecauseolderpeopleusuallysleepfewerhourspernight
Visitthefollowingwebsitesformoreinformation:
ChiSquareProceduresfortheAnalysisofCategoricalFrequencyData
ChisquareAnalysis
Correlation
Glossarytermsrelatedtomeasuresofassociation:
Association
ChiSquare
Correlation
CorrelationCoefficient
MeasuresofAssociation
Pearson'sCorrelationalCoefficient
ProductMomentCorrelationCoefficient

ContactUs|AboutUs
ResearchConnectionsissupportedbygrant#90YE0104fromtheOfficeofPlanning,ResearchandEvaluation,AdministrationforChildrenand
Families,U.S.DepartmentofHealthandHumanServices.ThecontentsaresolelytheresponsibilityoftheNationalCenterforChildreninPoverty
andtheInteruniversityConsortiumforPoliticalandSocialResearchanddonotnecessarilyrepresenttheofficialviewsoftheOfficeofPlanning,
ResearchandEvaluation,theAdministrationforChildrenandFamilies,ortheU.S.DepartmentofHealthandHumanServices.
2013TheRegentsoftheUniversityofMichigan

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