PSYCHOLOGICAL STATISTICS

CHAPTER 1: UNLOCKING OF BASIC CONCEPTS

NANETTE SAYO
ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY – MAIN CAMPUS

OUTLINE between variables, and attributing cause

I. Definition of Terms and effect in these relationships.
II. Fields of Statistics o These are results of experiments where
III. Population and Sample variables are manipulated and controlled.
a. Determining the Sample Size It is through experiments that existing
-Factors You Need to Consider theories are verified or disproved, and
Before Choosing the Sample Size where new theories emerge.
IV. Types of Data
V. Types of Variables POPULATION AND SAMPLES
VI. Level/Scale of Measurements  POPULATION – a collection of people, objects, or
VII. Sampling events with specified class or characteristics under
a. Sampling Techniques consideration
DEFINITION OF TERMS  PARAMETER – a value that describes a
 STATISTICS population
o a set of pertinent activities such as
collection, presentation, analysis and  SAMPLE – a collection of some elements in a
interpretation of quantitative data. population.
o a field of study which deals with
mathematical characterization of a  STATISTIC – a value that describes a sample
group/s of items.
Example: The Department of Agriculture is doing a
 COLLECTION OF DATA study of pineapples in an experimental field. In this
o refers to the process of gathering case the data under consideration are the individual
numerical information. weights of all pineapples in the field.
o Methods of gathering include interview, a. The population is the weights of all
questionnaire, experiments, observation, the pineapples in the experimental
and documentary analyses. field.
o Once the data are gathered, the next step b. A random collection of 100
is the presentation of data in appropriate pineapples is taken from the field.
tables and graphs. Each pineapple is weighed. The 100
weights form a random sample from
the population of all weights.
 ANALYSIS
o activity of describing the properties or
Comments: When referring to a population or
behavior of the data or possible sample, be sure to give the quantity being
correlation of different quantities or measured or counted. For instance, in the above
variables. Example, it is not sufficient to say that the
population consists of all pineapples in the field. We
 INTERPRETATION must state the quantity to be measured. Unless we
o has to be made based on the preliminary do, we won’t know whether to consider weight,
activities and other statistical methods. diameter, length, sugar content, acidity level, time to
mature, or any other of the many possible
FIELDS OF STATISTICS measurements that could be made on pineapples.
1. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
o concerned with the methods of collecting, DETERMINING THE SAMPLE SIZE
organizing, and presenting data The size of the sample is very important for
appropriately and creatively to describe or getting accurate, statistically significant results and
assess group characteristics. running your study successfully.
o It also includes the study of relationship  IF YOUR SAMPLE IS TOO SMALL, you may
between and among variables. include a disproportionate number of
individuals which are outliers and anomalies.
2. INFERENTIAL STATISTICS These skew the results and you don’t get a fair
o concerned with inferring or drawing picture of the whole population.
conclusions about the population based
from pre-selected elements of that  IF THE SAMPLE IS TOO BIG, the whole
population. study becomes complex, expensive and time-
o Testing the significant difference and consuming to run, and although the results are
independence between two or more more accurate, the benefits don’t outweigh the
variables are given emphasis. costs.

3. DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF EXPERIMENTS FACTORS YOU NEED TO CONSIDER

o pushes the frontiers of knowledge by BEFORE CHOOSING THE SAMPLE SIZE
making conclusions about relationships
1. POPULATION SIZE

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 o How many are you talking about in total?
o To find this out, you need to be clear about n=126 respondents
who does and doesn’t fit into your group. Using the other formula:
o For example, if you want to know about dog Z2( N )
owners, you’ll include everyone who has at n= 2 2
some point owned at least one dog. Z + 4 N (e )
2. MARGIN OF ERROR (CONFIDENCE INTERVAL) ( 1.96 )2 (185)
o Errors are inevitable – the question is how n= 2 2
much error you’ll allow. (1.96) + 4 (185)(0.5)
o The margin of error (confidence interval) is n=125 respondents
expressed in terms of mean numbers.
o You can set how much difference you’ll allow Note: The larger the size of the sample, the more
between the mean number of your sample and certain we can be sure that the sample size will be
the mean number of your population. good estimate of the population. The larger the size
o If you’ve ever seen a political poll on the news, of the sample, the closer its characteristics would
you’ve seen a confidence interval and how it’s be from the characteristics of the entire population.
expressed. It will look something like this:
“68% of voters said yes to Proposition Z, with
a margin of error of ± 5%.” TYPES OF DATA
o DATA – the information we gather about the sample
3. CONFIDENCE LEVEL or the population.
o This is a separate step to the similarly-named
confidence interval in step 2.
Nominal
o It deals with how confident you want to be that Qualitative or

Types of Data
the actual mean falls within your margin of Categorical
error. Ordinal
o The most common confidence intervals are
90% confident, 95% confident, and 99% Discrete
confident. Quantitative
Continuous
The sample size can be obtained by the following
formula:
SLOVIN’S FORMULA
QUALITATIVE OR CATEGORICAL VARIABLE – a
N variable that cannot assume a numerical value but can
n= 2
1+ Ne be classified into two or more nonnumeric categories

Where: QUALITATIVE DATA – data collected using the

N = population size categorical or qualitative variable
e = margin of error
or
TWO TYPES OF QUALITATIVE VARIABLE
Z2( N ) 1. NOMINAL VARIABLES – not ordered
n= 2
Z + 4 N (e2 ) 2. ORDINAL VARIABLES – ordered or
ranked
Where:
n = sample size
Z is the Z-score, (95%) = 1.96 QUANTITATIVE VARIABLE – a variable that can be
N = population size measured numerically
e = margin of error (± 5%)
QUANTITATIVE DATA – data collected on a
Here are the Z-scores for the most common
quantitative variable
confidence levels:
90% – Z Score = 1.645
95% – Z Score = 1.96 TYPES OF QUANTITATIVE DATA
1. DISCRETE VARIABLES
Example: A researcher is conducting an investigation a. a variable whose values are
regarding the factors affecting the teaching effectiveness of countable
the 185 faculty members of ISU-E. If he wanted to have a b. can assume only certain values
margin of error of 5%, then how many of the faculty should with no intermediate values
be taken as respondents? c. obtained through counting
Using Slovin’s Formula:
N 2. CONTINUOUS VARIABLES
n= 2 a. any numerical value over a
1+ Ne certain interval or intervals
185 b. results of measurements
n=¿
1+ 185¿ ¿

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 TYPES OF VARIABLES
o VARIABLE – a measurable characteristic that
varies. It may change from group to group, person
to person, or even within one person over time
. 1. REAL NOMINAL
1. DEPENDENT VARIABLES
o show the effect of manipulating or
introducing the independent
variables.
o For example, if the independent
variable is the use or non-use of a
new language teaching procedure,
then the dependent variable might be
students' scores on a test of the
content taught using that procedure.
o In other words, the variation in the
dependent variable depends on the
variation in the independent variable.
2. INDEPENDENT VARIABLES
o are those that the researcher has
control over.
o This "control" may involve
manipulating existing variables (e.g.,
modifying existing methods of
instruction) or introducing new
variables (e.g., adopting a totally new
method for some sections of a class)
in the research setting.
o Whatever the case may be, the
researcher expects that the
independent variable(s) will have
some effect on (or relationship with)
the dependent variables.
LEVEL/ SCALE OF MEASUREMENTS
Before we can conduct a statistical analysis,
we need to measure our dependent variable. Exactly
how the measurement is carried out depends on the
type of variable involved in the analysis. Different types
are measured differently.
Although procedures for measurement differ in
many ways, they can be classified using a few
fundamental categories. In a given category, all of the
procedures share some properties that are important for
you to know about. The categories are called "scales"
or “levels" of measurement and are described in this
section.
Level/Scales of
Measurements
Nominal Ordinal SAMPLING
Variable Variable
Interval
Real Nominal Variable
Artificial Ratio Variable
Nominal
1. NOMINAL VARIABLE.
o When measuring using a nominal
scale, one name or categorizes
responses.
o those classified based
on a naturally occurring
attribute.
2. ARTIFICIAL NOMINAL
o those classified based
on a “man-made”
attribute following
certain rules.
2. ORDINAL VARIABLE.
o It is grouped according to the rank or
order of the categories.
o Unlike nominal scales, ordinal scales
allow comparisons of the degree to
which two subjects possess the
dependent variable.
3. INTERVAL VARIABLE.
o Interval scales are numerical scales
in which intervals have the same
interpretation throughout.
o interval scale has no true zero point
4. RATIO VARIABLE.
o The ratio scale of measurement is the
most informative scale.
o It is an interval scale with the additional
property that its zero position indicates the
absence of the quantity being measured.
Summary
 Nominal variables are used to “name,” or label
a series of values. 
 Ordinal scales provide good information about
the order of choices, such as in a customer
satisfaction survey. 
 Interval scales give us the order of values plus
the ability to quantify the difference between
each one.
 Finally, Ratio scales give us the ultimate–order,
interval values, plus the ability to calculate
ratios since a “true zero” can be defined.
SAMPLING
o is a process used in statistical analysis in
which a predetermined number of
observations are taken from a larger
population.
1. PROBABILITY SAMPLING
o every member of
a population has a known and
equal chance of being selected.
2. NON-PROBABILITY SAMPLING
o a sampling technique where the
samples are gathered in a
process that does not give all the
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 individuals in the population characteristics, and you want to
equal chances of being selected. ensure that every characteristic is
proportionally represented in the
SAMPLING TECHNIQUES sample.
o It is used when we might reasonably
Sampling expect the measurement of interest to
Techniques vary between the different subgroups.
o The population is first divided into
subgroups (or strata) who all share a
similar characteristic. From the
Probability Non-probability overall proportions of the population,
Sampling Sampling
you calculate how many people
should be sampled from each
subgroup. Then you use random or
Simple random Convenience systematic sampling to select a
Sampling Sampling sample from each subgroup.
o Example: The company has 800
female employees and 200 male
Voluntary employees. You want to ensure that
Systematic
Response the sample reflects the gender
Sampling
Sampling balance of the company, so you sort
the population into two strata based
on gender. Then you use random
Stratified Purposive sampling on each group, selecting 80
Sampling Sampling women and 20 men, which gives you
a representative sample of 100
people
Clustered Snowball .
Sampling Sampling 4. CLUSTERED SAMPLING
o In a clustered sample, subgroups of
the population are used as the
Quota sampling unit, rather than individuals.
Sampling o The population is divided into
subgroups, known as clusters, and a
selection of these are randomly
(PROBABILITY SAMPLING) selected to be included in the study.
All members of the cluster are then
1. SIMPLE RANDOM SAMPLING included in the study.
o In this case each individual is chosen o Clustering should be taken into
entirely by chance and each member account in the analysis. This method
of the population has an equal is good for dealing with large and
chance, or probability, of being dispersed populations, but there is
selected. more risk of error in the sample, as
o One way of obtaining a random there could be substantial differences
sample is to give each individual in a between clusters. It’s difficult to
population a number, and then use a guarantee that the sampled clusters
table of random numbers to decide are really representative of the whole
which individuals to include. population.
o Example: You want to select a simple o Example: The company has offices in
random sample of 100 employees of 10 cities across the country (all with
Company X. You assign a number to roughly the same number of
every employee in the company employees in similar roles). You don’t
database from 1 to 1000, and use a have the capacity to travel to every
random number generator to select office to collect your data, so you use
100 numbers. random sampling to select 3 offices –
these are your clusters.
2. SYSTEMATIC SAMPLING
o Individuals are selected at regular Below illustrates the main types of probability sample.
intervals from a list of the whole
population. The intervals are chosen
to ensure an adequate sample size.
o For example, every 10th member of
the population is included. This is
often convenient and easy to use,
although it may also lead to bias.

3. STRATIFIED SAMPLING
o This sampling method is appropriate
when the population has mixed

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 o An effective purposive sample must have
clear criteria and rationale for inclusion.
o Example: You want to know more about
the opinions and experiences of disabled
students at your university, so you
purposefully select a number of students
with different support needs in order to
gather a varied range of data on their
experiences with student services.

(NON-PROBABILITY SAMPLING)
1. CONVENIENCE SAMPLING
o A convenience sample simply includes the
individuals who happen to be most
accessible to the researcher. This is an
easy and inexpensive way to gather initial
data, but there is no way to tell if the
sample is representative of the population,
so it can’t produce generalizable results.
o Example: You are researching opinions
about student support services in your
university, so after each of your classes,
you ask your fellow students to complete
a  survey on the topic. This is a
convenient way to gather data, but as you
only surveyed students taking the same
classes as you at the same level, the
sample is not representative of all the
students at your university.
4. SNOWBALL SAMPLING
o This method is commonly used in social
sciences when investigating hard to reach
groups. Existing subjects are asked to
nominate further subjects known to them,
so the sample increases in size like a
rolling snowball.
o Example: When carrying out a survey of
risk behaviors amongst intravenous drug
users, participants may be asked to
nominate other users to be interviewed.
5. QUOTA SAMPLING
o This is a relatively quick and inexpensive
method to operate since the choice of the
number of persons or elements to be
included in a sample is done at the
researcher’s own convenience or
preference and is not predetermined by
some carefully operated randomizing
plan.
Below illustrates the main types of non-probability
sample.

2. VOLUNTARY RESPONSE SAMPLING

o Similar to a convenience sample, a
voluntary response sample is mainly
based on ease of access. Instead of the
researcher choosing participants and
directly contacting them, people volunteer
themselves (e.g. by responding to a public
online survey).
o Voluntary response samples are always at
least somewhat biased, as some people
will inherently be more likely to volunteer
than others.
o Example: You send out the survey to all
students at your university and a lot of
students decide to complete it. This can
certainly give you some insight into the
topic, but the people who responded are
more likely to be those who have strong
opinions about the student support
services, so you can’t be sure that their
opinions are representative of all
students.

3. PURPOSIVE SAMPLING
o This type of sampling involves the
researcher using their judgement to select
a sample that is most useful to the
purposes of the research.
o It is often used in qualitative research,
where the researcher wants to gain
detailed knowledge about a specific
phenomenon rather than make statistical
inferences.

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How are you doing? Assessment Task
1. A father rates his daughter as a 2 on a 7-
EXERCISE 1. Television station GMA wants to
point scale (from 1 to 7) of crankiness. In
know the proportion of TV owners in NCR region
this example,
who watch the station’s new program at least once
(a) what is the variable?
a week. The station asked a random group of 1,000
TV owners in the NCR if they watch the program at
(b) what is the score?
least once a week.
a. What is the population?
(c) what is the range of values?

b. What is the sample?

2. What is the difference between a numeric
and a nominal variable?
EXERCISE 2. Classify the scales of measurement
that will be obtained from the following variables as
nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.
3. Give the level of measurement of each of a. Breeds of cattle
the following variables:
(a) a person’s nationality (Mexican, b. Ranks in the military
Chinese, Ethiopian, Australian,
etc.), c. Heights of plants 15 days after planting

(b) a person’s score on a standard d. Scores of basketball players

IQ test,
(c) a person’s place on a waiting list
(first in line, second in line, etc.).
4. What is the difference between a discrete
and a continuous variable?
e. Attitudes toward the teaching profession
EXERCISE 3. A teacher puts the 50 students'
names in a hat and chooses without looking to get a
sample of 10 students. What type of sample is this?
EXERCISE 4. You want to make a survey at ISUE
with 500 employees who are in favor of working
from home since the impact of the Covid-19 virus. If
you allow a margin of error of 5%, how many
employees must you consider as your sample?

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