Applied Research

Methods
Dr. Sahar Awan

SESSION 10: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS

Applications of Statistics
• Descriptive Statistics

• Inferential Statistics
Statistics – A Review
•Descriptive Statistics
- Describe basic characteristics and summarize the data

• Sample statistics
- Computed from the sample data

• Population parameters
- Measure of the entire population
Commonly Used Measures
• Central tendency
- Mean (Population: µ , Sample: X)
- Mode
- Median
Example
Section A Section B
6 6
4 8
6 6
10 7
8 6
4 8
8 7
10 8
Mean = 7 Mean = 7
Commonly Used Measures

• Dispersion
- Range
- Standard deviation (Population: σ  , Sample: S)

Standard Deviation =
Tabulation
• Orderly arrangement of data in a table

• Frequency table
- Cumulative frequency

• Cross tabulation
- Examples
Frequency Distribution
How many cups of tea do you drink in a day?
a. None
b. 1 - 2 cups
c. 3 - 5 cups
d. More than 5 cups

Make a frequency distribution table

Interpret the data
A survey asks respondents to respond to the statement “My work is interesting.” Interpret the
frequency distribution shown here:
a. My work is interesting:
Frequency Cumulative
frequency
Very true 650 62.4
Somewhat true 303 91.5
Not very true 61 97.3
Not at all true 28 100
2,715
Histogram
• A graphical way of showing a frequency distribution

• Height of the bar represents the frequency

Cross Tabulation
Cross Tabulation (refined)
Other graphical forms
• Pie charts

• Box and whisker diagram

Nature of Descriptive Statistics
• Scale of measurement determines the choice of descriptive statistics

• Eg. Nominal and ordinal data

• Eg. Interval or data

Normal Distribution
• Symmetric bell shaped distribution describing the expected probability
distribution of chance occurrences
• 99% values fall within 3 standard deviations
Standardized Values
• Used to compare an individual value to the population mean in
units of the standard deviation

x
z

Standardized Normal Distribution
• Probability distribution for the standardized normal curve