INTRODUCTION

TO STATISTICS
LESSON 01
 a branch of science and applied
mathematics which deals with
• collection
• organization
STATISTICS • presentation
• analysis
• Interpretation
of data
STATISTICS IN SOCIAL WORK

• Although it is often mistakenly equated with mathematics, statistics is

more about developing logical reasoning than just number crunching.
• When conducting social work research with the goal of advancing the
knowledge in the field, statistics is an essential tool that enables
social workers to draw a story out of the mountains of statistical data
unearthed.
 MAJOR AREAS/FIELDS OF STATISTICS

• Descriptive Statistics
• Methods concerned with the collection, description, and
analysis of a set of data without drawing conclusions or
inferences about a larger set.
• Examples are measures of location (mean, median, mode,
quartiles, deciles, percentiles), measures of variability
(range, variance, standard deviation, coefficient of
variability), and measures of tendencies (skewness and
kurtosis).
 MAJOR AREAS/FIELDS OF STATISTICS

• Inferential Statistics
• Methods concerned with making predictions or inferences
about a larger set of data using only the information
gathered from a subset of this larger set.
• Examples are normal distribution (area under the curve),
sampling distribution (sample size, standard scores),
probability distribution (binomial, bernoulli, geometric,
hypergeometric), and hypothesis testing ( z-test, t-test,
chi-square, anova).
 POPULATION
• Refers to the groups of people, objects,
events or things in any form; the
totality of samples.
SOME • PARAMETER – a numerical measurement
describing some characteristic of a
BASIC population.
TERMS
SAMPLE
• A subset of the population in the
universe
• STATISTIC – a numerical measurement
describing some characteristic of a
sample.
VARIABLE
– a characteristic or attribute of a person or object which can assume
different values or labels for different persons or objects under
consideration

Types of Variable
• Qualitative Variable – names or categories, non-numeric values
• Quantitative Variable – has numeric values
• DISCRETE - countable
• CONTINUOUS - measurable
 Other Types of Variable
• Dependent Variable - variable whose value is being predicted.
• Independent Variable - the predictor, to predict the value of the variable.
Example: A researcher wants to predict the amount of sunlight needed for the growth of a
certain plant.
• Dependent: growth of the plant
• Independent: amount of sunlight

• DATA - facts and figures that are collected, presented and analyzed; can be
numeric or non-numeric.
• Types of Data
• PRIMARY – data which were acquired directly from the source, which is first-hand in nature.
• SECONDARY – data which were not acquired directly from the source, information were
collected from published or unpublished sources like books, newspapers, and thesis.
• Nominal scale – assigns names or labels to
observation in purely arbitrary sequence.
• Ordinal scale – assigns number or labels to
observations with implied ordering.
• Interval scale – assigns real numbers to LEVELS OF
observations to reflect distance between MEASUREMENT
rank positions; has no true zero point.
• Ratio scale – assigns numbers to
observations to reflect the existence of true
absolute zero point as its origin.
 METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION
• OBJECTIVE METHOD
• Collects data either by measurement, counting or by observation.
• Requires the use of a measuring or counting instrument.
• SUBJECTIVE METHOD
• The information is provided by identified respondents.
• The instrument used to gather data may take from a questionnaire.
• UTILIZING THE EXISTING RECORD/SECONDARY DATA
• Uses data which have been previously collected by another person or
institution for some other purposes.
• EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
• Gathers data through experiments.
• REGISTRATION METHOD
• Gathers data through registrations.
METHODS OF DATA PRESENTATION

• Textual Presentation
• A narrative form describing the characteristics of the universe or population
based on the data collected and organized by giving highlights.
• Applicable only when presenting few information.
• Example: the total number of senior citizens (60 years old and over) based on
the 2010 Census of Population and Housing was 4.6 million, accounting for
5.97 percent of the 2010 Philippine population.
 METHODS OF DATA PRESENTATION
• Tabular Method
• Data are organized into classes or categories by rows and/or columns and
appropriate pieces of information are found in the cells of the table.
• Example:
Table Heading

Table 1. Number of faculty by age group and gender. Parts of a Statistical Table

Gender Table Heading – includes the table number

Age Group and title.
Caption Male Female
Caption – designates the information
Below 21 0 2
contained in the columns.
21-30 5 11
31-40 8 19 Body – main part of the table containing the
information or figures presented.
41-50 11 17
51-60 3 5 Classes – categories which describes the data
usually found at the left-hand side of the
Above 60 2 1
table.

Classes
Body
METHODS OF DATA PRESENTATION
• Graphical Presentation
• Provides the need to easily visualize the distributional properties of data.
• Most efficient way of presenting trends.

• Common Types of Graphs

• Line Graph – graphical presentation of data especially useful for showing trends
over a period of time.
• Pie Graph – a circular graph that is useful in showing how a total quality is
distributed among a group of categories. The pieces of the pie represent the
proportions of the total that fall into each category.
• Bar Graph – consists of a series of rectangular bars.
• Pictograph – each symbol represents a definite and uniform value.
 • Identify if the following statements are descriptive or inferential.
• A campaign manager analyzes the effect of TV ads on the promotion
of a senatorial candidate
• The guard in the SM Megamall records the number of shoppers for
the past 15 days
• Financial analysts say that mortgage may soon hit bottom
• Identify if the following is quantitative or qualitative variable.
• Brand of personal computer used
• Amount of time a personal computer is used per week
SEATWORK: • Identify if the following is discrete or continuous.
• The number of VCDs and DVDs rented each day in Video City
• Weight of the students in private high schools
• Identify the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval,
ratio).
• Temperatures measured in Fahrenheit
• Courses offered in university belt
• Evaluation of students to faculty members using Likert scale
• Floor area of condominium units