PSY 241 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Statistical Inference, Statistic, Descriptive Statistics
9 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Statistics are tools: organize information, draw conclusions. A set of mathematical procedures for organizing, summarizing, and interpreting information. Provide standardized techniques for communicating and interpreting information. A population is the set of all individuals of interest in a particular study: group you want to understand, doesn"t mean big. A sample is a set of individuals selected from the population: intended to represent population. Parameter is a value that describes a population. A statistic is a value that describes a sample. Data are measurements or observations: data set:collection of measurements/observations, datum:single measurement/observation. Descriptive statistics: used to describe data. Inferential statistics: used to study samples and then make inferences or generalizations about the population from which they were selected. Organize/summarize raw scores in form that is more manageable: frequency distribution tables and graphs, measures of central tendency, measures of variability, measures of association. Tools for generalized beyond actual observations: uses sample data to make general statements about a population.
