Research Methods: Descriptive Statistics KR Flashcards
How do we analyse Quantitative data
by using descriptive statistics
What type of data does descriptive statistics analyse?
Quantitative data
Descriptive statistics analyses quantitative data. What two ways of doing this?
Measures of dispersion and measures of central tendency
What is meant by measures of central tendency?
any measure of the average value in a set of data
What is meant by measures of dispersion?
the spread of scores
Name the three ways in which we can uses measures of central tendency to analyse quantitative data
Mean, Median, Mode
Mean median and mode are apart of which descriptive statistic?
measures of central tendency
Summarise Mode as a measure of central tendency
most common score
Summarise Median as a measure of central tendency
central/middle score in a ranked list
Summarise Mean as a measure of central tendency
Mathematical average
True or False: there can be only one mode in a data set
False: there can be more than one mode in a data set
Which level of measurement uses Mode?
nominal
Which measure of central tendency is used with nominal data?
Mode
How is mode calculated?
take the most common frequency
A03: What is a strength of mode?
it is easy to calculate and less prone to distortion by extreme scores
A03: Why is mode less prone to distortion by extreme scores?
it doesn’t take into account all of the scores, only the most common
A03: What is a weakness of mode?
it doesn’t take account of all scores
A03: Why is it a weakness of mode that it doesn’t take into account all scores?
the data may be less accurate as we exclude extreme scores
A03: Why is it a weakness if we ignore extreme scores in mode?
it limits our understanding of behaviour
A03: What is a further weakness of mode?
not as useful if there is more than one mode in a data set
A03: Why is mode not as useful if there is more than one mode in a data set?
it affects how we interpret the data
How do we calculate the median score?
rank the scores in order and pick the central score
What should we do if there are two central numbers when calculating the median score?
if there are two central scores, add together and divide by 2
A03: What is a strength of using the median?
easy to calculate and not effected by extreme scores
A03: Why is the median not affected by extreme scores?
it doesn’t take into account all values only the central score
A03: What is a weakness of using the median?
it is not as sensitive as mean
A03: why is the median not as sensitive as the mean?
it doesn’t take into account all values only the central score
How do we calculate the mean?
All scores added up and divided by the total number of scores