STATISTICS:

The practice or science of collecting and analysing numerical data in large quantities,
especially for the purpose of inferring proportions in a whole from those in a representative
sample
CATEGORIES OF STATISTICS:
Statistics is mainly divided into the following two categories:
 Descriptive Statistics.
 Inferential Statistics.

T test: A t-test is a type of inferential statistic used to determine if there is a significant

difference between the means of two groups, which may be related in certain features. The
t-test is one of many tests used for the purpose of hypothesis testing in statistics.
ANOVA: Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is an analysis tool used in statistics that splits an
observed aggregate variability found inside a data set into two parts: systematic factors
and random factors. The systematic factors have a statistical influence on the given data
set, while the random factors do not. Analysts use the ANOVA test to determine the
influence that independent variables have on the dependent variable in a regression study.
VARIABLE: A variable is any characteristics, number, or quantity that can be measured or
counted. A variable may also be called a data item. Age, sex, business income and expenses,
country of birth, capital expenditure, class grades, eye colour and vehicle type are examples
of variables.
Common Types of Variables:
 Categorical variable: variables than can be put into categories. For example, the
category “Toothpaste Brands” might contain the variables.
 Confounding variable: extra variables that have a hidden effect on your experimental
results.
 Continuous variable: a variable with infinite  number of values, like “time” or “weight”.
 Control variable: a factor in an experiment which must be held constant. For example,
in an experiment to determine whether light makes plants grow faster, you would have
to control for soil quality and water.

 Dependent variable: the outcome of an experiment. As you change the independent

variable, you watch what happens to the dependent variable.
 Discrete variable: a variable that can only take on a certain number of values. For
example, “number of cars in a parking lot” is discrete because a car park can only hold
so many cars.
 Independent variable: a variable that is not affected by anything that you, the
researcher, does. Usually plotted on the x-axis.
 POPULATION: In statistics, a population is the pool of individuals from which a
statistical sample is drawn for a study. Thus, any selection of individuals grouped
together by a common feature can be said to be a population.

SAMPLE: A sample refers to a smaller, manageable version of a larger group. It is a

subset containing the characteristics of a larger population. Samples are used in
statistical testing when population sizes are too large for the test to include all possible
members or observations.

SCALES OF MEASUREMENTS: Statistics, the variables or numbers are defined and

categorised using different scales of measurements. Each level of measurement scale has
specific properties that determine the various use of statistical analysis. In this article, we
will learn four types of scales such as nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio scale.
1. Nominal scale of measurement
The nominal scale of measurement defines the identity property of data. This scale has
certain characteristics, but doesn’t have any form of numerical meaning. The data can be
placed into categories but can’t be multiplied, divided, added or subtracted from one
another. It’s also not possible to measure the difference between data points.
Examples of nominal data include eye colour and country of birth. Nominal data can be
broken down again into three categories:

 Nominal with order: Some nominal data can be sub-categorised in order, such as “cold,
warm, hot and very hot.”
 Nominal without order: Nominal data can also be sub-categorised as nominal without
order, such as male and female.
 Dichotomous: Dichotomous data is defined by having only two categories or levels, such as
“yes’ and ‘no’.
2. Ordinal scale of measurement
The ordinal scale defines data that is placed in a specific order. While each value is ranked,
there’s no information that specifies what differentiates the categories from each other.
These values can’t be added to or subtracted from.
An example of this kind of data would include satisfaction data points in a survey, where
‘one = happy, two = neutral, and three = unhappy.’ Where someone finished in a race also
describes ordinal data. While first place, second place or third place shows what order the
runners finished in, it doesn’t specify how far the first-place finisher was in front of the
second-place finisher.

3. Interval scale of measurement

The interval scale contains properties of nominal and ordered data, but the difference
between data points can be quantified. This type of data shows both the order of the
variables and the exact differences between the variables. They can be added to or
subtracted from each other, but not multiplied or divided. For example, 40 degrees is not 20
degrees multiplied by two.

Data points on the interval scale have the same difference between them. The difference on
the scale between 10 and 20 degrees is the same between 20 and 30 degrees. This scale is
used to quantify the difference between variables, whereas the other two scales are used to
describe qualitative values only. Other examples of interval scales include the year a car was
made or the months of the year.

4. Ratio scale of measurement

Ratio scales of measurement include properties from all four scales of measurement. The
data is nominal and defined by an identity, can be classified in order, contains intervals and
can be broken down into exact value. Weight, height and distance are all examples of ratio
variables. Data in the ratio scale can be added, subtracted, divided and multiplied.
Ratio scales also differ from interval scales in that the scale has a ‘true zero’. The number
zero means that the data has no value point. An example of this is height or weight, as
someone cannot be zero centimetres tall or weigh zero kilos – or be negative centimetres or
negative kilos.

DATA: Data can be defined as a systematic record of a particular quantity. It is the different

values of that quantity represented together in a set. It is a collection of facts and figures to be
used for a specific purpose such as a survey or analysis. When arranged in an organized form,
can be called information. The source of data ( primary data, secondary data) is also
an important factor.

HYPOTHETICAL CONTRUCTS: The “hypothetical construct” has been an important concept

in philosophy of science for the past half century. References to the concept date as far back
as 1943 (Loomba, 1943). Inconsistencies in the use of the term and the related ‘intervening
variable’ concept prompted MacCorquodale and Meehl (1948) to distinguish the two
concepts and propose conventions for their employment in psychological discourse. They
recommended that ‘hypothetical construct’ designates theoretical concepts that “refer to
processes or entities that are not directly observed” and, thus, fail to meet the requirements
of intervening variables (p. 104). It is interesting to speculate what makes a hypothetical
construct “hypothetical.” The motivation for attaching “hypothetical” to constructs is not
always immediately apparent. The aim of this paper is to trace the origins of the expression
‘hypothetical construct’, delineate its employment in psychology, and explore the
ontological and epistemological presuppositions that underlie conceptions of hypothetical
constructs.
TYPES OF RESEARCH:
EXPERIMENTAL METHOD: The experimental method involves manipulating one variable to
determine if changes in one variable cause changes in another variable. This method relies
on controlled methods, random assignment and the manipulation of variables to test a
hypothesis.
CORRELATIONAL METHOD: The correlational method involves looking for relationships
between variables. For example, a researcher might be interested in knowing if users'
privacy settings in a social networking application are related to their personality, IQ
ex, level of education, employment status, age, gender, income, and so on.

HYPOTHESIS: A hypothesis is an assumption, an idea that is proposed for the sake of
argument so that it can be tested to see if it might be true. ... A hypothesis is usually
tentative; it's an assumption or suggestion made strictly for the objective of being tested.

 Null Hypothesis: It states a negative statement to support the researcher’s findings that
there is no relationship between two variables.

Alternative Hypothesis: It states that there is a relationship between the two variables of
the study and that the results are significant to the research topic.
MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY:
The Mean
The mean is the most common measure of central tendency used by researchers and people
in all kinds of professions. It is the measure of central tendency that is also referred to as
the average. A researcher can use the mean to describe the data distribution of variables
measured as intervals or ratios. These are variables that include numerically corresponding
categories or ranges (like race, class, gender, or level of education), as well as variables
measured numerically from a scale that begins with zero (like household income or the
number of children within a family).

A mean is very easy to calculate. One simply has to add all the data values or "scores" and
then divide this sum by the total number of scores in the distribution of data. For example, if
five families have 0, 2, 2, 3, and 5 children respectively, the mean number of children is (0 +
2 + 2 + 3 + 5)/5 = 12/5 = 2.4. This means that the five households have an average of 2.4
children.

The Median

The median is the value at the middle of a distribution of data when those data are
organized from the lowest to the highest value. This measure of central tendency can be
calculated for variables that are measured with ordinal, interval or ratio scales.
Calculating the median is also rather simple. Let’s suppose we have the following list of
numbers: 5, 7, 10, 43, 2, 69, 31, 6, 22. First, we must arrange the numbers in order from
lowest to highest. The result is this: 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, 22, 31, 43, 69. The median is 10 because it
is the exact middle number. There are four numbers below 10 and four numbers above 10.

If your data distribution has an even number of cases which means that there is no exact
middle, you simply adjust the data range slightly in order to calculate the median. For
example, if we add the number 87 to the end of our list of numbers above, we have 10 total
numbers in our distribution, so there is no single middle number. In this case, one takes the
average of the scores for the two middle numbers. In our new list, the two middle numbers
are 10 and 22. So, we take the average of those two numbers: (10 + 22) /2 = 16. Our median
is now 16.

The Mode

The mode is the measure of central tendency that identifies the category or score that
occurs the most frequently within the distribution of data. In other words, it is the most
common score or the score that appears the highest number of times in a distribution. The
mode can be calculated for any type of data, including those measured as nominal variables,
or by name.

For example, let’s say we are looking at pets owned by 100 families and the distribution
looks like this:

Animal   Number of families that own it

 Dog: 60
 Cat: 35
 Fish: 17
 Hamster: 13
 Snake: 3

The mode here is "dog" since more families own a dog than any other animal. Note that the
mode is always expressed as the category or score, not the frequency of that score. For
instance, in the above example, the mode is "dog," not 60, which is the number of times dog
appears.

BY: ABHICHITHA

THANK YOU
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