Chapter 1: Introduction to

Statistics
 Statistics
Mathematical procedures
Organize
Summarize Information
interpret
 Variables
characteristic or condition that can
change or take on different values.
Research objective/question
relationship between variables for a specific
group of individuals
 Population & Sample
Population
entire group of individuals of interest in
research
N
Sample
selected to represent the population in a
research study
Results are generalized to population
n
 Types of Variables
Discrete variables
indivisible categories
Ex. class size
Continuous variables
infinitely divisible units
such as time (hour, minute, second) or weight
 Real Limits
Boundaries set for each measurement
category or interval for continuous
variables
located exactly half-way (or half-unit)
between adjacent categories
Upper real limit
Category +1/2 unit
Lower real limit
Category minus unit
 Measuring Variables
To establish relationships between
variables observed
Data
The measurements obtained in a research
Scale of measurement
set of categories and a process (sort,
compare, compute)
classifies each individual into one category
4 Types of Measurement Scales
1. Nominal scale
unordered set of categories
identified only by name
determine similarity or differences (or sort)
individuals
Categorical
2. Ordinal scale
ordered set of categories (ranked)
direction of difference between individuals (greater
than or less than)
4 Types of Measurement Scales
3. Interval scale
ordered series of equal-sized categories
identify the direction and magnitude of a
difference
Arbitrary location of the zero point
4. Ratio scale
is similar to an interval scale
value of zero indicates absence of the variable
(absolute zero)
identify the direction and magnitude of differences
allow ratio comparisons of measurements
4 Types of Measurement Scales
Scale Nominal Ordinal Interval Ratio

Example Gender The rank order Degrees F. Degrees K.

s Ethnicity of anything Most Annual income in
Marital Movie ratings personality dollars.
Status (0, 1 or 2 measures. Length or distance in
thumbs up) WAIS centimeters, inches,
SES intelligence miles, etc.
score

Operatio Counting Greater than Addition and Multiplication and

ns or less than subtraction division of scale
Allowed operations of scale values
values
4 Types of Measurement Scales
Scale Nominal Ordinal Interval Ratio
Operation Counting Greater Addition and Multiplication
s Allowed than or subtraction of and division of
less than scale values scale values
operations
4 Types of Measurement Scales
Scale Nominal Ordinal Interval Ratio
Statistics Mode Median mean, All statistics
Chi- and standard for interval
square percentile deviation, scales
correlation, plus :
regression, geometric
analysis of mean,
variance harmonic
mean,
coefficient
of variation,
logarithms
 Research Methods
Two variables
Correlational
Two or more variables
Experimental
Non-experimental
Non-equivalent groups
Pre-post studies
 Correlational Studies
to determine presence of relationship
between two variables
to describe the relationship
simply observes the two variables as they
exist naturally
Chi-square
Cannot define causal relationship
 Experiments
demonstrate a cause-and-effect
relationship between two variables
show that changing the value of one
variable (independent variable) causes
changes to occur in an observed variable
(dependent variable)
Done through
manipulation of a variable
control over research situation (reduce
extraneous variables)
 Experiments (cont.)
General variables to control
Participant variable
Environment variable
Control techniques
Random assignments of participants
Matching participants or environment
through assignment
Holding variables constant
 Non-experimental Methods
Similar to experiments--also compare groups of
scores
Do not manipulate variable to differentiate the
groups
cannot demonstrate cause and effect
relationships
simply demonstrate and describe relationships,
similar to correlational research
Use quasi-independent variables to
differentiates the groups
Pre-existing participant or environmental variables
time lapse
 Non-experimental Methods
Non-equivalent groups
Pre-existing participant or environmental variables
differentiates the groups
Cannot control assignment of participants to groups
and cannot assure group equivalence
Pre-post Study
Time passage used to differentiate groups
Cannot control variables related to time
 Types of Statistical Methods
Descriptive
Inferential
 Descriptive Statistics
Organize and summarize data
Ex. tables or graphs; descriptive values
(average score) used to summarize data.
Parameter
descriptive value for a population
Statistic
descriptive value for a sample.
 Inferential Statistics
Use sample data to make general
conclusions (inferences) about
populations.
Sample data
limited information about the population
Sample statistics
imperfect representatives of population
parameters
 Sampling Error
The discrepancy between a sample
statistic and its population parameter
Define and measure sampling error
needed in inferential statistics
 Notation
The individual measurements or scores obtained
for a research participant will be identified by the
letter X (or X and Y if there are multiple scores
for each individual).
The number of scores in a data set will be
identified by N for a population or n for a sample.
Summing a set of values is a common operation
in statistics and has its own notation. The Greek
letter sigma, , will be used to stand for "the sum
of." For example, X identifies the sum of the
scores.
 Order of Operations
1. All calculations within parentheses are done
first.
2. Squaring or raising to other exponents is done
second.
3. Multiplying, and dividing are done third, and
should be completed in order from left to right.
4. Summation with the notation is done next.
5. Any additional adding and subtracting is done
last and should be completed in order from left
to right.