Descriptive

Statistics:
Central Tendency
Lesson 4
 Psychology & Statistics
 Goals of Psychology
 Describe, predict, influence behavior

& cognitive processes

 Role of statistics
 Descriptive statistics

Describe, organize & summarize data

Efficient communication

 Inferential statistics
Draw conclusions about data
Aid decision making ~
 Organizing Data
 Describing distribution of variables
 enumeration: list raw data

 Frequency distributions
 organize  tables or graphs

 highlight important characteristics

range, most frequent value ~

 Distributions as Tables
 f = Frequency
 # of times a value of variable occurs

 Sf = n

 calculate proportions & percentages

 Frequency distribution tables

 ordered list of all values of variable &

their frequencies
 logical order (usually descending) ~
 Enumeration Frequency
Distribution
# of presentations to be able to Table
recall 100%

8 12 18 15 10 X f
9 13 14 11 14 19 1
18 2
7 12 14 7 16
16 3
8 13 12 9 6 15 3
16 12 8 5 11 14 5
7 14 11 6 15 13 2
10 8 11 8 9 12 6
11 9 9 10 19 11 7
16 15 9 11 12 10 3
14 12 18 11 5 9 6
8 5
7 3
 Sf = n 6 2
5 2
 calculate proportions &
percentages 50
Grouped Frequency Distribution
 Group by class intervals
 report frequency for each interval

 Lose information: no exact values

 General rules
 each interval same width

 consecutive & do not overlap ~

 Enumeration Frequency
Distribution
# of presentations to be able to Table
recall 100%

8 12 18 15 10 X f
9 13 14 11 14 19 1
18 2
7 12 14 7 16
16 3
8 13 12 9 6 15 3
16 12 8 5 11 14 5
7 14 11 6 15 13 2
10 8 11 8 9 12 6
11 9 9 10 19 11 7
16 15 9 11 12 10 3
14 12 18 11 5 9 6
8 5
7 3
 Sf = n 6 2
5 2
 calculate proportions &
percentages 50
 Distributions as graphs
 Summarizes data
 focus on clear communication

 Bar Graphs
 nominal or ordinal data

 discrete variables

 Histograms & Frequency Polygons

 Interval/ratio data

continuous & discrete variables

 Relative frequency distributions
 Y axis = proportions

 Large data sets ~

 Bar Graphs
Nominal Ordinal

18 18

14 14

10 10
f f
6 6

2 2

Rep Dem Ind A B C D F

Political affiliation Exam Grades

 Histograms
 X-axis
 Class intervals
18
of variables
14
 Y-axis
10
f
 Frequencies 6
vertical bars ~ 2
5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14 15-16 17-18 19-20
5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21

# of presentations
 Frequency polygons
 Frequency represented as points
 Contains same info as histogram ~

18 Relative Frequency

14

10
f f

5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21
# of presentations
# of presentations
 Distributions: 3 useful features
 Summarizes important characteristics of
data

1. What is shape of the distribution?

2. Where is middle of distribution?

3. How wide is distribution?

 Shapes of distributions
 Unimodal distribution
 single value is most f

frequent
X

 Bimodal (or multimodal )

 2 most frequently
f
occurring values
 May indicate relevant
X
subgroups ~
 Symmetry of distributions
 Symmetric
 if right side mirror-
f
image of left
 Skewed - asymmetric
 a few extreme values

 Positively skewed:
f
right tail longer -4 -2 0 +2 +4
 Negatively skewed:
X
left tail longer ~
f

-4 -2 0 +2 +4
X
 The Normal Distribution
 Bell-shaped
 3 characteristics
 Unimodal f
 symmetric

 asymptotic

 Many naturally-occurring variables

approximately normally distributed
 Makes statistics useful ~
 Central Tendency
 Describes most typical values
 Depends on level of measurement

 Mode (all levels)

 Most frequently occurring value

 Median (only ordinal & interval/ratio)

 value where ½ observations above

& ½ below
 Mean (only interval/ratio)
 Arithmetic average ~
 Mode
 Most frequently occurring value ~

18 18

14 14

10 f 10
f
6
6
2
2

A B C D F
Rep Dem Ind
exam grades
Political affiliation

18
18
14
14
f 10
f 10
6
6
2
2
5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21
5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21
# of presentations
# of presentations
 Median
 Midpoint of a data set
 values ½ smaller, ½ larger ~

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
 Finding the Median
1. List all values from largest  smallest
if f=3, then list 3 times

2. Odd # entries median = middle value

3. Even # entries = half way b/n middle 2

values ~
 Mean
 Summarizes quantitative data
 May not be actual value in data set

 Introduces error

 Most commonly used

 Computing the mean

Sum of all observations
Mean =
Number of observations
 Statistical Notation
 Formula for mean: X
N
 Σ: summate
 add all that follows

 X: observation
 value of an observation

 N: number of observations
 Or data points ~
Populations & Samples: Notation
 Different symbols
 Often different formulas for

calculation
 Population: Greek letters
 Population mean = μ

 Sample: Roman letters

 Sample mean = X
 APA style: M ~
 Populations & Samples
 Population
 Parameter

 Exact value

 Population mean = μ

 Sample
 Statistic

 estimate of parameter

 introduces error

 Sample mean = X ~
 Formulas for Mean
 Population mean
 Parameter   X
N

 Sample mean
 Statistic
X 
 X
 Estimate / error
 Sometimes n used for
N
sample ~