statistics
a set of tools and techniques used for describing, organizing, and interpreting information or
data
three basic goals of science
descripation, prediction, and explanation
description
how do people behave
rule-based vs rule free play behavior among children
prediction
identifying the factors that influence behavior
when a group has more boys than girls, rule based play is more likely
explanation
identifying the underlying causes of a behavior
boys are more competitive? rule based games allow for more competition
,how statistics helps science?
statistics helps scientists accomplish these three goals
descriptive statistics
used to organize and describe data
counts, means, percentages
inferential statistics
the next step after descriptive statistics
used to make inferences about a larger group from a smaller group
- allow you to infer the truth about the larger group based on the information you gather from
smaller group of people
sample
the group you are actually collecting data from
- this is a smaller group (subset) of the larger group you are interested in
population
the group you are actually interested in drawing conclusions about
variable
, - something that can change(vary) or have different values for different individuals
data
- information collected from the sample on the variables we are interested in
- the actual numbers, measurements, or characteristics that represent the ideas we are
interested in
continuous data
- data measured on a continuum
- all numbers between two endpoints are possible scores
categorical data
- data that sorts people into categories (only so many options for the variables)
central tendency
a single number that represents a group of scores
mean
- the most familiar measure of central tendency
- you may know it as the average
- sensitive to extreme scores