The process of a statistical research study is the means of gathering, organizing, and analyzing data. Although, you may never conduct a statistical research study, you will likely read about a statistical research study in a professional journal or hear of one on the news. YOU will have to decide the validity of the researcher’s answer to the question asked. This sub-module, specifically the power point and video entitled "Descriptive Statistics" will outline the statistical research process in the introduction.
Additionally, we focus on the important characteristics of quantitative data:
CENTER:
This sub-module discusses how to summarize a data set using numbers, not just tables and graphs. This sub-module focuses on the important characteristic of “CENTER”. When describing the numerical center of a quantitative data set, use a number or numbers that best represents a typical value in the data set or represents the location of the data on the real number line.
VARIATION:
This sub-module introduces the concept of VARIATION, which is an extremely important topic in statistics. In some data sets, the data values are concentrated closely to the mean, but in other data sets, the data values are more widely dispersed. The most common measures of variation are range, standard deviation, and variance. We will focus not only on calculating these numerical values but also on interpreting and understanding them.
POSITION:
This sub-module introduces the measures that can be used to compare values from different data sets or to compare values within the same data set. We will discuss percentiles, quartiles, and standard z-scores.
Measures of Center