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L- Psychology A2 Research Methods > Descriptive statistics > Flashcards

Descriptive statistics Flashcards

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1
Q

What are descriptive statistics?

A

Techniques for describing patterns in data without statistically analysing the patterns to see if they have significance.

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2
Q

What are the measures of central tendency?

A

Mean, median, mode

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3
Q

How is the mean calculated?

A

Adding up all the individual values and diving the total by the number of values in the data set

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4
Q

How is the mode calculated?

A

The most frequently occurring value in the data set

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5
Q

How is the median calculated?

A

Arranging the values in order from lowest to highest and finding the middle value

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6
Q

What measure of central tendency is most sensitive?

A

Mean

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7
Q

What measure of central tendency is the least sensitive?

A

Mode

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8
Q

What do measures of dispersion show?

A

How ‘spread out’ the values are in a set of data

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9
Q

What are the measures of dispersion?

A

Standard deviation and the range

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10
Q

What is the range?

A

The difference between the highest and the lowest value in the data set

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11
Q

How do you work out the range?

A

Subtract the lowest value from the highest value then add 1

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12
Q

What is the standard deviation?

A

The average distance each value in the data set is from the mean

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13
Q

What are the strengths and limitations of the mean?

A

STRENGTH: Most sensitive measure of central tendency as it uses all of the data - more representative of the data as a whole

LIMITATIONS: Can be distorted by extreme values

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14
Q

What are the strengths and limitations of the median?

A

Strength: not affected by extreme values
Easy to calculate

Limitations: less sensitive than the mean, not all scores are included

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15
Q

What are the strengths and limitations of the mode?

A

Strength: easy to calculate

Limitation: Not usually representative of the data as a whole

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16
Q

What are the strengths and limitations of the range?

A

Strengths: easy to calculate

Limitations: Can be distorted by outliers

May not be representative of the data as a whole (only takes into account the two extreme values)

17
Q

What are the strengths and limitations of standard deviations?

A

Strengths: Takes into account all of the data and uses the mean in its calculation
Gives us useful information that takes us beyond the mean

Limitations: The standard deviation may be distorted if the mean has been skewed by outliers

L- Psychology A2 Research Methods (11 decks)

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