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Lesson 1 Basic Concepts in Statistics
Lesson 1 Basic Concepts in Statistics
Lesson 1 Basic Concepts in Statistics
INTRODUCTION:
This lesson focuses on the basic concepts of statistics including levels of
measurement. In measurement, you will be learning the rules in assigning
numbers or symbols to the levels of our variables. Learning the different levels of
measurement will help you decide which statistical tool is appropriate in
analyzing the data.
OBJECTIVES:
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. Define the basic concepts of statistics;
2. Give examples of the different levels of measurement;
3. Differentiate:
a. Descriptive vs. inferential statistics
b. Data vs. variable
c. Population vs. sample
d. Parameter vs. statistics
Areas of Statistics
There are two broad areas of statistics- the descriptive and inferential.
Descriptive statistics can be defined as a set of methods involving the
collection, presentation and summarization by means of numerical descriptions.
Definition of Terms
Data is used to describe a collection of natural phenomena
descriptors, including the result of experience, observation or
experiment. These could be numbers, words or images that are
used as measurement or result from observations of a set of
variables. Data can be drawn from the population or sample.
Scale of Measurement
There are four (4) scales of measurement – nominal, ordinal, interval and
ratio.
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1. Nominal scale is a scale of measurement in which objects or individuals
are assigned into distinct categories and have no numerical properties.
This is the lowest scale.
For examples, sex (male, female), marital status (single, married),
highest educational attainment (elementary, secondary, or college
graduate) and bath soap brand (Safeguard, Palmolive, Zest, Bioderm,
etc.) are nominal in nature. They do not possess quantitative properties.
Type of Variables
There are two types of variables – qualitative and quantitative.
Qualitative Variables are variables that can be classified into
categories, according to characteristics or attributes.
For example, sex is a qualitative variable because you can
classify as either male or female. Another example is the color of
the eyes (blue, brown, etc).
Quantitative variables are variables that are numerical or you
can possibly rank them.
The examples of quantitative variables are age, number of
deliveries, amount of sugar, etc. Quantitative variables can further
be classified discrete or continuous.
Discrete variables assume only certain values and
are countable.
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For example, number of active COVID-19 cases in the
province, number of friends you have, number of
Facebook likes and etc.
Continuous variables are variables that can
assume any values between two values.
For example, weight of cargo vessels, time consumed
in reading a novel and others.
ACTIVITY 1.1:
Identify the level of the following measurements:
1. Income category (high, average, low)
2. Plate number
3. Aptitude test Score
4. Number of grocery item
5. Telephone number
6. Contest Prize (first, second, third)
7. Age of students enrolled in Statistics
8. Test scores to measure knowledge
9. Street number
10. Number of hours of duty
ACTIVITY 2.2:
Classify each variable as discrete or continuous.
1. The time for a machine to produce certain product.
2. Housing cost
3. The employment rate
4. The number of employees in a company
5. Length of cable wire
6. Amount of water need to cook pandesal
7. Daily allowance of students
8. Number of COVID - 19 cases in Antique
9. The number of chicks hatched
10. The speed of a motorcycle
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