Aaa Math

Ayngan, Jolina K.
18-2220-562
COA 1C
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
Descriptive statistics are used to describe the basic features of the data in a study. They provide
simple summaries about the sample and the measures. Together with simple graphics analysis, they
form the basis of virtually every quantitative analysis of data.
Descriptive statistics are typically distinguished from inferential statistics. With descriptive statistics
you are simply describing what is or what the data shows. With inferential statistics, you are trying to
reach conclusions that extend beyond the immediate data alone. For instance, we use inferential
statistics to try to infer from the sample data what the population might think. Or, we use inferential
statistics to make judgments of the probability that an observed difference between groups is a
dependable one or one that might have happened by chance in this study. Thus, we use inferential
statistics to make inferences from our data to more general conditions; we use descriptive statistics
simply to describe what's going on in our data.
Descriptive Statistics are used to present quantitative descriptions in a manageable form. In a
research study we may have lots of measures. Or we may measure a large number of people on any
measure. Descriptive statistics help us to simplify large amounts of data in a sensible way. Each
descriptive statistic reduces lots of data into a simpler summary. For instance, consider a simple number
used to summarize how well a batter is performing in baseball, the batting average. This single number
is simply the number of hits divided by the number of times at bat (reported to three significant digits).
A batter who is hitting .333 is getting a hit one time in every three at bats. One batting .250 is hitting
one time in four. The single number describes a large number of discrete events. Or, consider the
scourge of many students, the Grade Point Average (GPA). This single number describes the general
performance of a student across a potentially wide range of course experiences.
Every time you try to describe a large set of observations with a single indicator you run the risk
of distorting the original data or losing important detail. The batting average doesn't tell you whether
the batter is hitting home runs or singles. It doesn't tell whether she's been in a slump or on a streak. The
GPA doesn't tell you whether the student was in difficult courses or easy ones, or whether they were
courses in their major field or in other disciplines. Even given these limitations, descriptive statistics
provide a powerful summary that may enable comparisons across people or other units.
INFERENTIAL STATISTICS
Inferential statistics, unlike descriptive statistics, is the attempt to apply the conclusions that have
been obtained from one experimental study to more general populations. This means inferential
statistics tries to answer questions about populations and samples that have not been tested in the
given experiment.
If you conduct a survey, the goal is to apply the conclusions to a more general population,
assuming the sample size is large enough and the sample representative enough of the broader
public. This is important because studies and experiments need to state and conclude something
about general populations and not just about the sample that was studied.
For example, suppose there is a training program that claims to improve test scores and an
experimenter wants to verify the claims. She starts with two groups, one taking the training program
and the other not (the control). She measures the test scores in the beginning and at the end, making
sure that the starting test scores are, on an average, the same for both test groups. The researcher finds
that the test scores for those who take the training are indeed higher now, and this difference
is statistically significant. She rejects her null hypothesis. Merely stating the results for the two groups in
terms of average score difference and representing this in the form of graphs is descriptive statistics.
But if she concludes that the training program is effective in improving test scores (in general, and for
all people), then this is inferential statistics.
It's tempting to assume that descriptive statistics alone signals the end of an experiment, or to
fail to draw a distinction between the results of descriptive statistical tests and your analysis. Statistics
are powerful tools, but it's the analysis provided afterwards by inferential statistics that explicitly makes
claims about what those results mean, why, and in what context. Remember that inference involves
moving focus from smaller and more specific to larger and more general.
It should be noted that inferential statistics always talks in terms of probability, but this can be made
highly reliable by designing the right experimental conditions. The inferences are almost always an
estimate with a confidence interval. There are however some cases where there is simply a rejection
of a hypothesis that is involved, which is the case if the experiment is designed to refute some claim.
Several models are available in inferential statistics that help in the process of analysis. These models
need to be chosen with care, since an error in assuming one model might give faulty conclusions about
the experiment.
For example data might be assumed to be described by a probability density with
some variables that need to be determined in the experiment. However, there are some cases when
such an assumption cannot be made, which usually occurs during experiments involving sampling of
a human population in social science experiments. Therefore, one needs to take all precautions in
order to arrive at the right conclusions through inferential statistics.
MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY

The central tendency of a distribution is an estimate of the "center" of a distribution of values. There are
three major types of estimates of central tendency:
The Mean or average is probably the most commonly used method of describing central
tendency. To compute the mean all you do is add up all the values and divide by the number of
values. For example, the mean or average quiz score is determined by summing all the scores and
dividing by the number of students taking the exam. For example, consider the test score values:
15, 20, 21, 20, 36, 15, 25, 15
The sum of these 8 values is 167, so the mean is 167/8 = 20.875.
The Median is the score found at the exact middle of the set of values. One way to compute
the median is to list all scores in numerical order, and then locate the score in the center of the sample.
For example, if there are 500 scores in the list, score #250 would be the median. If we order the 8 scores
shown above, we would get:
15,15,15,20,20,21,25,36
There are 8 scores and score #4 and #5 represent the halfway point. Since both of these scores are 20,
the median is 20. If the two middle scores had different values, you would have to interpolate to
determine the median.
The Mode is the most frequently occurring value in the set of scores. To determine the mode,
you might again order the scores as shown above, and then count each one. The most frequently
occurring value is the mode. In our example, the value 15 occurs three times and is the model. In some
distributions there is more than one modal value. For instance, in a bimodal distribution there are two
values that occur most frequently.
Notice that for the same set of 8 scores we got three different values -- 20.875, 20, and 15 -- for the
mean, median and mode respectively. If the distribution is truly normal (i.e., bell-shaped), the mean,
median and mode are all equal to each other.

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Ayngan, Jolina K.

MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY

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