Statistics Flashcards
what is statistics?
a range of procedures for gathering, organizing, analyzing and presenting data
what is the goal of statistics
provide a better understanding of data collected and presented
objectively problem solve
allows sets of data to be compared to gain meaningful analysis of trends and results
provide a common language among researchers
levels of measurement
data in its raw form, unanalyzed and unsorted
examples of levels of measurement
age, test score, speed, gender, disease status
descriptive statistics
statistics and graphs used to describe data
snapshot of data
examples of descriptive statistics
mean, median, mode, standard deviation, frequency, percentage, variance
inferential statistics
used to make a decision in order to answer study question
examples of inferential statistics
t-test, ANOVA, chi-squared test, regression, effect size, confidence interval
variable
any characteristic that can and does assume different values for the different people, objects, or events being studied
qualitative
involves description, utilizes observation, listening, understanding, etc
quantitative
countable, involves numbers that represent constructs
mixed-method
studies that collect both
continuous data
data with numeric values
examples of continuous data
exam scores, age, weight, height
categorical data
data with categorical values
examples of categorical data
gender, race, disease status
nominal
categorical data
variable with categories that do not have specific order or ranking
gender, blood type, ethnic identity, religion, smoking status, martial status - is this nominal, ordinal, ratio or interval?
nominal
ordinal
categorical data
variable with categories that have specific order, but no specific difference between each category
highest degree obtained, birth order, satisfaction with nursing care received - is this nominal, ordinal, ratio or interval?
ordinal
interval
continuous data
variable with categories that have specific order and differences between measurements is consistent but no true zero
temperature, age in categories - is this nominal, ordinal, interval or ratio?
interval
ratio
continuous data
variable with categories that have specific order and differences between measurements is consistent with true zero
weight, age in years, numbers of years spent in schools, IQ score, reaction time in seconds, number of children, annual income in dollars - is this nominal, ordinal, interval or ratio?
ratio
frequency distributions
representations of the number of individuals in each category on the scale of measurement
what does a frequency distribution allow
allows the researcher to have a glance at the entire data conveniently
measures of central tendency
summary measure that attempts to describe a whole set of data with a single value that represents the middle or center of its distribution
avg of data collection
measures of variability
helps determine the degree of variation within a population or sample
can aid in determining how representative a particular score is of a data set
