RES 320

Social Research –
Methodological Thinking
Week 11
Department of Psychology
Faculty of Humanities

Professor Eugene L Davids

Unit 10
Descriptive statistics
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Recap: Introduction
• Field of statistics can be divided into 2 broad categories
• Descriptive statistics
• Inferential statistics

• Descriptive statistics
• goal is to describe or summarise your research data

• Inferential statistics
• goal is to go beyond the immediate set of data and to infer characteristics
of populations based on your sample data
Recap: Descriptive statistics
• Descriptive statistics starts with a set of data
• called a data set

• Descriptive statistics is used to

• understand and summarise the key numerical characteristics of the
data set

• Key question in descriptive statistics:

• How can I communicate the important characteristics of my data?
Recap: Frequency distribution
• Basic way to represent the data values for a variable is
• to use a frequency distribution

• Frequency distribution
• is a systematic arrangement of data values
• in which the unique data values are rank ordered
• and the frequencies are provided for each of these values
• oftentimes, the percentages for each frequency are also included in a
frequency distribution
• When we present the frequency distribution in a table we use the
following format
• first column shows the unique data values for the variable
• the second column the frequencies for each of these values
• the third column the percentages
Graphical representation of data
• Graphs are pictorial representations of data
• can be used for one variable or for more than one variable
Bar graphs
• Vertical bars represent the
data
Frequency
80 • Used with categorical
70
60 67
variables
50
52
40 45
30 37

20
10 17
• Categorical variable
0
Fool Me Once Baby Reind eer NCIS Big Bang Theory Lov e Is Blind
• Netflix Shows (Horizontal axis =
Netflix Shows 5 categories)
• Frequencies on vertical axis
• Frequencies can also be
converted into percentages
 Frequency
80

70

60 67
50
52
40 45
30 37
20

10 17
0
Fool Me Once Baby Reindeer NCIS Big Bang Theory Love Is Blind
Netflix Shows
Practical
• What can we learn from the bar graph?

• What will the percentages be for each of the categories?

• How were you able to calculate the percentages?

Netflix Show Frequency Percentage
Fool Me Once 37 16,97
Baby Reindeer 45 20,64
NCIS 17 7,80
Big Bang Theory 67 30,73
Love Is Blind 52 23,85
TOTAL 218
Histograms
• Bar graphs = categorical
variables
• Histograms = quantitative
variables

• Presentation of a frequency
distribution in bar format

https://mathbitsnotebook.com/JuniorMath/Statistics/SDhistogram.html
https://mathbitsnotebook.com/JuniorMath/Statistics/SDhistogram.html
Practical
• What can we learn from the histogram?

• What diDerences are there between the bar graph and the
histogram?
• 16 – 20 year olds rated M&Ms as their most favourite sweet/luxury
type
• 0 – 5 year olds were the age group with the lowest rating of M&Ms
as their favourite sweet/luxury type

• What can we deduce from this?

Line graphs
• Useful way to graphically
depict the distribution of a
quantitative variable is to
construct a line graph

• Relies on the drawing of one or

more lines
https://images.app.goo.gl/vrsSQA7A77LawJxr9
https://images.app.goo.gl/vrsSQA7A77LawJxr9
Practical
• What can we learn from the line graph?

• What information is being shared?

• In which settings would a line graph like this be helpful?

• Friday had the least push-ups, followed by Wednesday

• Sunday and Tuesday had the most push-ups

• What can we deduce from the trends we are seeing?

Scatterplots • A graph used to depict the
relationship between two
quantitative variables

• Dependent variable on the

vertical axis (Y) and the
independent or predictor
variable on the horizontal axis
(X)

https://www.latestquality.com/interpreting-a-scatter-plot/
• Dots within the graph
represent the cases (i.e.,
participants) in the data set
https://psyteachr.github.io/data-skills-v1/scatterplots.html
Practical
• What can we learn from the scatterplot?

• What information is being shared?

• Negative relationship between depression scores and happiness
scores
• As depression scores go up, happiness scores go down

• More cases had lower depression scores and higher happiness

scores

• Some outliners
• Some scoring more than 100 on the happiness scores / scale
• Some scoring more than 50 on the depression scores / scale
Measures of central tendency
• Most important ways to describe and understand data is to
obtain
• measures of central tendency

• Single numerical value that is considered most typical of the

values of a quantitative variable

• Three most common measures of central tendency are the

mode, the median, and the mean
Mode
• Most basic, and the crudest, measure of central tendency

• Mode
• is the most frequently occurring number for a variable

• 5, 7, 9, 3, 5, 7, 5, 9, 7, 7, 2, 4, 9, 5, 6, 7, 3, 2, 7, 5
• Mode is 7

• 5, 7, 9, 3, 5, 7, 5, 9, 7, 7, 2, 4, 9, 5, 6, 7, 3, 2, 7, 5
Median
• The centre point in a set of numbers that has been arranged in
ascending or descending order

• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
• Median is 3

• 1, 2, 3, 4
• Median is 2.5
• the average of the two centremost numbers (i.e., the average of 2 and 3
is 2.5)
What is the median

5, 7, 9, 3, 5, 7, 5, 9, 7, 7, 2, 4, 9, 5, 6, 7, 3, 2, 7, 5

2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 9, 9, 9
What is the median

5, 7, 9, 3, 5, 7, 5, 9, 7, 7, 2, 4, 9, 5, 6, 7, 3, 2, 7, 5

2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 9, 9, 9

Median is 5.5
Mean
• Refers to the arithmetic average

• 1, 2, 3
• Average / Mean = 2
• (1 + 2 + 3) / 3

• We refer to the mean as x̄ (called X bar)

Formula for the Mean
Formula for the Mean
∑ is a sum sign (it says to add up
the numbers that follow it)

X is the variable we are using to

calculate the mean

n is the number of numbers we

have
 Formula for the Mean

Sum sign is telling us to add The variable we are

up the numbers that follows calculate, namely the values
it of 1, 2, 3

The number of numbers we

have, namely 3
Practical Application 1
• Using the data provided, in small groups, do the following:

1. Interpret what the scatterplot data is telling you, in

Scatterplot 1

2. Draw a scatterplot using the data provided, in Data set 1

3. Calculate the measures of central tendency for the data

provided (with calculations, where applicable), in Data set 1
• The scatter plot of hours of exercise versus mental well-being
scores suggests a positive relationship

• as the number of hours spent exercising increases, mental well-being

tends to improve
Data Set 1
Hours Studied (per
Student ID Exam Score (%)
week)
1 5 60
2 7 70
3 3 50
4 8 85
5 6 75
6 4 55
7 10 90
8 9 88
9 2 40
10 6 72
Practical Application 2
• Using the data provided, in small groups, do the following:

1. Calculate the measures of central tendency for the data

provided (with calculations, where applicable), in Data set 2
 Thank You
Next Lecture
Unit 10 (Continue):
Prof Eugene L Davids
Descriptive statistics (Chapter 14)
Room 11-30 (Humanities Building)
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Exam Focus
Units 7 - 11