Descriptive Statistics Fundamentals Flashcards
What is Descriptive Statistics?
Descriptive statistics refers to a set of methods used to summarize and describe the main features of a dataset, such as its central tendency, variability, and distribution.
These methods provide an overview of the data and help identify patterns and relationships.
Do you want to learn the appropriate statistics to perform different test?
yes - do you know them?
What are the 2 main ways to classify data?
- Types of data
- Measurement levels
What are the 2 ‘Types of Data’ that you can have?
- Categorical
- Numerical
What is an example of Categorical Data?
A. Car brands like Audi, BMW, Mercedes, etc
B. Answers to Yes and No questions
Example - “Are you currently enrolled in a university?” “Do you own a car?”
What is an example of Numerical Data?
Numerical Data represents numbers. It has two subsets Discrete & Continuous
Numerical Data is a subset of Types of Data or Levels of Measurement?
Types of Data
Types of Data - view
- Types of Data 2. Levels of Measurement
a. Categorical b. Numerical
i. Discrete ii. Continuous
What are the ‘3 Types of Data’?
- Categorical
- Numerical - Discrete
- Numerical - Continuous
What are the two subsets of Numerical Data?
- Discrete
- Continuous
What is Discrete Data?
Something that can be counted in a finite manner. (Absolutely sure the value will be an integer) (it is the opposite of continuous data)
Examples:
“How many children do you want?”
Scores on the SAT
Grades at university
Number of objects
Money as bank notes and coins
What is Continuous data?
Continuous Data is ‘infinite’ and impossible to count. (It can take on an infinite amount of value)
Examples:
Your weight
Height
Area
Distance
Time
A variable represents the weight of a person. What type of data does it represent?
numerical, continuous
A variable represents the gender of a person, What type of data does it represent?
Categorical
What are the 2 “Levels of Measurement”?
- Qualitative
- Quantitative - represented by numbers
What are the two types of Qualitative Data?
- Nominal
- Ordinal
What are examples of Nominal Data?
Categorical data like car brands or like the four seasons (winter, spring, summer, fall)
They are not numbers and cannot be ordered
Definition: (of a role or status) existing in name only.
What are examples of Ordinal Data
Groups and categories that follow a strict order. Data that can be ordered.
Examples:
Likert Scale
Definition: relating to a thing’s position in a series.
“ordinal position of birth”
What are the two groups of Quantitative Data?
- Interval
- Ratio
What is unique about Ratio?
They have a true 0, and intervals don’t
Most things we observe in the world are ratio’s
What are examples of Ratio’s?
Number of objects, distance, price and time
What is the most common Interval variable?
Temperature - it doesn’t have a true zero
Celsius and Fahrenheit are Intervals and have no true zero
Temperature in K is a ratio and has a true zero
A variable represents the gender of a person. What type of data and level of measurement does it represent?
Categorical, Qualitative- Nominal
Gender is a nominal variable. The possible categories cannot be put in any order.
A variable represents the weight of a person. What type of data does it represent?
Continuous, Quantitative - Ratio
Weight is a ratio variable, which means it is a quantitative measure that has a true zero point, signifying the absence of the attribute being measured. In the case of weight, zero signifies a complete lack of weight.
What is the most intuitive way to interpret data?
Visualization
What are some useful ways to visualize categorical variables?
a. Frequency distribution tables
b. Bar Charts
c. Pie Charts
d. Pareto diagrams
What is a Frequency Distribution Table?
A table that has two columns. The type and the corresponding frequency.
frequency - the number of occurrences of each item
What is Relative Frequency?
Relative frequency is the percentage of the total frequency for each category
Example: The percentage of cars sold
All relative frequencies add up to 100%
Reveals the share of the total
ie. Market Share - a good representation is a pie chart
What is a Pareto Diagram?
A Pareto diagram is a special type of bar chart, where categories are shown in descending order of frequency
What does Frequency represent?
the number of occurrences of each item
What is Cumulative Frequence?
Cumulative Frequency is the sum of relative frequencies
It starts as the frequency of the first item and then adds the second item and so on until it finishes at 100%
How do you calculate Desired Intervals?
Largest number minus smallest number divided by number of desired intervals
largest number - smallest
/
number of desired intervals