Introduction

to Statistics
Semester-V Fall 2021

Ms. Fatima Salman

Psychology Department
Lahore Garrison University
Introduction to Statistics
• By definition, statistics consist of facts and figures.
• Such as average income, crime rate, birth rate, baseball batting
averages, and so on.
• These statistics are usually informative and time saving because they
condense large quantities of information into a few simple figures.
• Research in psychology (and other fields) involves gathering
information.
Example
• For example, to determine, whether violence on TV has any effect on
children’s behavior, you would need to gather information about
children’s behaviors and the TV programs they watch.

• The term statistics refers to a set of mathematical procedures for

organizing, summarizing, and interpreting information.
Importance of statistics in Psychology
• Statistical procedures help to ensure that the information or
observations are presented and interpreted in an accurate and
informative way.
• Statistics help researchers bring order out of chaos.
• In addition, statistics provide researchers with a set of standardized
techniques that are recognized and understood throughout the
scientific community.
• Thus, the statistical methods used by one researcher are familiar to
other researchers, who can accurately interpret the statistical analyses
with a full understanding of how the analysis was done and what the
results signify.
Technical Terms
• 1. Population: In statistical terminology, the entire group that a researcher
wishes to study is called a population.
• For example, a researcher may be interested in the effect of divorce on the
self-esteem of preteen children.
• In this example, the researcher is interested in the group of preteen children.

• Because populations tend to be very large, it usually is impossible for a

researcher to examine every individual in the population of interest.
Therefore, researchers typically select a smaller, more manageable group
from the population and limit their studies to the individuals in the selected
group.
• 2. Sample: In statistical terms, a set of individuals
selected from a population is called a sample.
• A sample is intended to be representative of its
population and a sample should always be identified
in terms of the population from which it was selected.
• Specifically, when a researcher finishes examining the
sample, the goal is to generalize the results back to
the entire population.
• 3. A variable is a characteristic or condition that changes or has
different values for different individuals.
• Researchers are interested in specific internal characteristics of the
individuals in the population (or in the sample), or they are interested
in outside factors that may influence the individuals.
• For example, a researcher may be interested in the influence of the
weather on people’s moods. As the weather changes, do people’s
moods also change?
• Variables can be characteristics that differ from one individual to
another, such as height, weight, gender, or personality.
• Also, variables can be environmental conditions that change, such as
temperature, time of day, or the size of the room in which the
research is being conducted
• 4. Data (plural) are measurements or observations. A data
set is a collection of measurements or observations.
• A datum (singular) is a single measurement or observation
and is commonly called a score or raw score.
• Earlier, we defined populations and samples in terms of
individuals. For example, we discussed a sample of preschool
children.
• However, that we will also refer to populations or samples of
scores. Because research typically involves measuring each
individual to obtain a score.
5. PARAMETERS AND STATISTICS
• When describing data, it is necessary to distinguish whether the data come from a
population or a sample.
• A numerical figure that describes a population is called a parameter.
• For example, the average score for the population.
• A numerical figure that describes a sample is called a statistic.
• For example, the average score for the sample.

• Typically, the research process begins with a question about a population parameter.
• However, the actual data come from a sample and are used to compute ample
statistics.
 6. DESCRIPTIVE AND INFERENTIAL
STATISTICAL METHODS
• Although researchers have developed a variety of different statistical
procedures to organize and interpret data, these different procedures
can be classified into two general categories.
I) The first category, descriptive statistics, consists of statistical
procedures that are used to simplify and summarize data.
• Descriptive statistics are techniques that take raw scores and
organize or summarize them in a form that is more
manageable. Often the scores are organized in a table or a
graph so that it is possible to see the entire set of scores.
II) The second general category of statistical techniques is called
inferential statistics.
• Inferential statistics are methods that use sample data to make
general statements about a population from which they were
selected.
• Because populations are typically very large, it usually is not possible
to measure everyone in the population. Therefore, a sample is
selected to represent the population.
• By analyzing the results from the sample, we hope to make general
statements about the population.
• Typically, researchers use sample statistics as the basis for drawing
conclusions about population parameters.
7. Sampling Error
• Although samples are generally representative of their populations, a
sample is not expected to give a perfectly accurate picture of the
whole population.
• There usually is some discrepancy between a sample statistic and the
corresponding population parameter.
• This discrepancy is called sampling error.
8. CONSTRUCTS AND OPERATIONAL
DEFINITIONS
• Some variables, such as height, weight, and eye color are well-
defined, concrete entities that can be observed and measured
directly.
• Constructs are internal attributes or characteristics that cannot be
directly observed but are useful for describing and explaining
behavior.
• Variables like intelligence, anxiety, and hunger are called constructs.
Operational definition
• An operational definition defines a construct in terms
of external behaviors that can be observed and
measured.
• For example, your intelligence is measured and
defined by your performance on an IQ test, or hunger
can be measured and defined by the number of hours
since last eating.
 Example:
• A researcher wants to measure if age is related to addiction. Perhaps their hypothesis is: the incidence
of addiction will increase with age. Here we have two variables, age and addiction. In order to make the
research as clear as possible, the researcher must define how they will measure these variables.
Essentially, how do we measure someone’s age and how to we measure addiction?
• Variable One: Age might seem straightforward. You might be wondering why we need to define age if
we all know what age is. However, one researcher might decide to measure age in months in order to
get someone’s precise age, while another researcher might just choose to measure age in years. In
order to understand the results of the study, we will need to know how this researcher operationalized
age. For the sake of this example lets say that age is defined as how old someone is in years.
• Variable Two: The variable of addiction is slightly more complicated than age. In order to operationalize
it the researcher has to decide exactly how they want to measure addiction. They might narrow down
their definition and say that addiction is defined as going through withdrawal when the person stops
using a substance. Or the researchers might decide that the definition of addiction is: if someone
currently meets the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for any substance use disorder. For the sake of this
example, let’s say that the researcher chose the latter.
• Final Definition: In this research study age is defined as participant’s age measured in years and the
incidence of addiction is defined as whether or not the participant currently meets the DSM-5
diagnostic criteria for any substance use disorder.
9. DISCRETE AND CONTINUOUS
VARIABLES
• A discrete variable consists of separate, indivisible categories. No values can
exist between two neighboring categories.
• Discrete variables are commonly restricted to whole, countable numbers—for
example, the number of children in a family or the number of students
attending class.

• On the other hand, many variables are not discrete. These variables are called
continuous variable because they can be divided into an infinite number of
fractional parts.
• Variables such as time, height, and weight are not limited to a fixed set of
separate, indivisible categories.
 10. SCALES OF MEASUREMENT
• Levels of measurement, also called scales of measurement, tell you how
precisely variables are recorded. In scientific research, a variable is anything
that can take on different values across your data set (e.g., height or test
scores).
• There are 4 levels of measurement:
• Nominal: the data can only be categorized
• Ordinal: the data can be categorized and ranked
• Interval: the data can be categorized, ranked, and evenly spaced
• Ratio: the data can be categorized, ranked, evenly spaced, and has a
natural zero.
• Depending on the level of measurement of the variable, what you can do to
analyze your data may be limited. There is a hierarchy in the complexity and
precision of the level of measurement, from low (nominal) to high (ratio).
• 1. A nominal scale represents lower level of measurement.
Such scales classifies persons or objects in to two or more
categories.
• You can categorize your data by labelling them in mutually exclusive
groups, but there is no order between the categories.
• Examples include gender, nationality, language, City of birth
Gender, Ethnicity, Car brands, Marital status
• 2. An ordinal scale not only classifies subjects but also ranks them in
terms of the degree to which they possess a characteristics of
interest.
• You can categorize and rank your data in an order, but you cannot say
anything about the intervals between the rankings.
• Although you can rank the top 5 Olympic medallists, this scale does
not tell you how close or far apart they are in number of wins.
• Common example of ordinal scale include quality ranking,
socioeconomics classes, and occupational status.
• Top 5 Olympic medallists, Language ability (e.g., beginner,
intermediate, fluent) Likert-type questions  (e.g., very dissatisfied to
very satisfied)
• Interval scales are numeric scales in which we know both the order
and the exact differences between the values.
• You can categorize, rank, and infer equal intervals between
neighboring data points, but there is no true zero point.
• The difference between any two adjacent temperatures is the same:
one degree. But zero degrees is defined differently depending on the
scale – it doesn’t mean an absolute absence of temperature.
• The same is true for test scores and personality inventories. A zero on
a test is arbitrary; it does not mean that the test-taker has an absolute
lack of the trait being measured.
•  The classic example of an interval scale is Celsius temperature
because the difference between each value is the same.  For example,
the difference between 60 and 50 degrees is a measurable of 10
degrees, as is the difference between 80 and 70 degrees.
• Ratio scale
• This is the highest level of measurement and has the properties of
other three levels.
• You can categorize, rank, and infer equal intervals between
neighboring data points, and there is a true zero point.
• A true zero means there is an absence of the variable of interest. In
ratio scales, zero does mean an absolute lack of the variable.
• Height, Age, Weight, Temperature in Kelvin
•Classic example of ratio scale s heart beats per minute has a very
natural zero point. Zero means no heart beats.
Why are levels of measurement important?

• The level at which you measure a variable determines how you can
analyze your data.
• The different levels limit which descriptive statistics you can use to get
an overall summary of your data, and which type of 
inferential statistics you can perform on your data to get results.
• In many cases, your variables can be measured at different levels, so
you have to choose the level of measurement you will use before data
collection begins.
 10. SCALES OF MEASUREMENT
Stevens (1946) classified variables into four levels.
These are referred to as level of measurement, or levels of data.
1. Nominal
2. Ordinal
3. Interval Scale
4. Ratio Scale
Ratio Absolute zero

Interval Distance is meaningful

Attributes can be ordered

Ordinal
Nominal Attributes are only named; weakest
Learning Check # 1
• A survey asks people to identify their gender, annual income, and
marital status (single, married, divorced, etc.).
• For each of these three variables, identify the scale of measurement
that probably is used and identify whether the variable is continuous
or discrete.
Answer
• Gender is a discrete variable and is measure on nominal scale.
• annual income are measured on ratio scales and are both continuous
variables.
• Marital status is measured on a nominal scale and is a discrete
variable.
Learning Check # 2
• An English professor uses letter grades (A, B, C, D, and F) to evaluate a
set of student essays.
• What kind of scale is being used to measure the quality of the essays?
Answer:
• Ordinal scale
•  A set of four scores consists of values 3, 1, 7, and 4. We will compute
ΣX, Σ, and (ΣX for these scores.
ANSWER:
ANSWER:
 INTRODUCTION TO FREQUENCY
DISTRIBUTIONS
• The results from a research study usually consist scores collected during
the study.
• The immediate problem for the researcher is to organize the scores into
some comprehensible form so that any patterns in the data can be seen
easily and communicated to others.
• This is the job of descriptive statistics: to simplify the organization and
presentation of data.
• A frequency distribution is an organized tabulation of the
number of individuals located in each category on the scale of
measurement.
Answer You also should notice that the frequencies can be used to find
the total number of scores in the distribution. By adding up the
frequencies, you obtain the total number of individuals:

By multiplying the frequencies with the scores

(X), you obtain the total number of scores.
LEARNING CHECK
Answer:
LEARNING CHECK
ANSWER