STAT 111 ASSIGNMENTS

1. What is statistics?

Statistics is a branch of mathematics dealing with data collection,

organization, analysis, interpretation and presentation. Statistics deals with all
aspects of data including the planning of data collection in terms of the design
of surveys and experiments.

2. What is Data?

Data is a set of values of subjects with respect to qualitative or quantitative

variables. The concept of data is commonly associated with scientific
research; data is collected by a huge range of organizations and institutions,
including businesses (e.g., sales data, revenue, profits, and stock price),
governments (e.g., crime rates, unemployment rates, literacy rates) and non-
governmental organizations (e.g., censuses of the number of homeless people
by non-profit organizations).

3. Explain two methods of data collection.

Data collection is the process of gathering and measuring information on

targeted variables in an established system, which then enables one to answer
relevant questions and evaluate outcomes.

 Observation:

Observation is the process in which one or more persons observe what is

occurring in some real life situation and they classify and record pertinent
happenings according to some planned schemes. It is used to evaluate the
overt behavior of individuals in controlled or uncontrolled situation. It is a
method of research which deals with the external behavior of persons in
appropriate situations.
According to P.V. Young, “Observation is a systematic and deliberate study
through eye, of spontaneous occurrences at the time they occur. According to
Oxford Concise Dictionary, “Observation means accurate watching, Knowing
of phenomena as they occur in nature with regard to cause and effect or
Mutual relations”.

 Interview:
Interview as a technique of data collection is very popular and extensively
used in every field of social research.
Interview is a direct method of inquiry. It is simply stated as a social process
in which a person known as the interviewer asks questions usually in a face to
face contact to the other person or persons known as interviewee or
interviewees. The interviewee responds to these and the interviewer collects
various information from these responses through a very healthy and friendly
social interaction.