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Learning Activity Sheet No. 1

Topic : INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICS

Learning Objectives: After reading this Learning Activity Sheet, YOU

MUST be able:
1. To explain the meaning and uses of statistics.
2. To differentiate population and sample.
3. To enumerate variables according to functional relationship,
continuity of values, scale of measurements.

DEFINITION OF STATISTICS

Statistics may be defined as the science of collection, presentation,

analysis, and interpretation of numerical data to make a decision.

Statistics is often categorized into:

1. Descriptive Statistics – consists of methods for collecting,

summarizing, and describing data.

Example descriptive question: What are the demographic profile of the

respondents in terms of age, sex, and year level?

2. Inferential Statistics – involves using sample data to make inferences

(draw conclusions) about an entire population.

Example inferential question: Are there any significant differences in the

assessment of student-respondents on the level of their overall
satisfaction with the services provided by CDSGA when they are grouped
according to age, sex, and year level?

USES OF STATISTICS

Statistics is a branch of mathematics that can be used for many purposes.

Some of these are briefly described below.

1. It can give a precise description of data. This is a function of statistics

that enables us to make accurate statements or judgments about
averages, variability, and relationship.

2. It can predict the behavior of individuals. In school, the grades of

students can be predicted through a scholastic aptitude test. In

PREPARED BY: MR. RODEL E. CAHILIG, MSA | Updated: January, 2022

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industry, work performance is usually predicted by an aptitude test
related to that particular type of work.

3. It can be used to test a hypothesis. We can determine whether a variable

is related to or not to another variable through a test of inference such
as in correlation. Other statistical measures we can apply for inferential
purposes are the t-test, chi-square, F-test, and others.

POPULATION AND SAMPLE

The word population refers to groups or aggregates of people, animals,

objects, materials, happenings, or things of any form. It is the entire group being
studied. The measures of the population are called parameters.

Examples: CDSGA students, professors, college/department

The word sample refers to a subset of the population that is being studied.
The measures of the sample are called statistics. We use information from a
sample to draw conclusions about the entire population.

Exercise No. 1:

From the given scenarios, identify the population being studied and the
sample chosen.

1. A market researcher surveys 100 people in the City of San Jose del
Monte, Bulacan on their coffee-drinking habits. He wants to know
whether people in this city are willing to switch their regular drink to
something new.

Population – People in the City of San Jose del monte, Bulacan

Sample – 100 people

2. 970 college students in Colegio de San Gabriel Arcangel were surveyed

concerning their satisfaction with the quality services provided by
frontline offices.

Population – College students in CDSGA

Sample – 970 college students

3. OCTA Research surveys 1,200 registered voters on their presidential

bet this 2022 national election.

PREPARED BY: MR. RODEL E. CAHILIG, MSA | Updated: January, 2022

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Population – All registered voters
Sample – 1,200 registered voters

4. A school administrator wants to analyze the final exam scores of all

graduating students to determine if there is a trend.

Population – Graduating students

Sample – none

VARIABLES

In research, variables are used and studied. The term variable refers to a
characteristic or property whereby the members of the group or set vary or differ
from another. It is a characteristic that has two (2) or more mutually exclusive
values or properties. For instance, the members of a group may vary in sex, age,
eye color, intelligence, attitude, and others. Labels or numerals may be used to
name a variable and its particular values are referred to as values or levels.

However, there is a word constant which refers to a property whereby the

members of the group do not differ from one another. When you deal with only
one level of socio-economic status, say low SES, socioeconomic status is a
constant, not a variable.

VARIABLES ACCORDING TO FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIP

Variables are classified into independent and dependent with respect to

their functional relationship. For example, if you treat variable y as a function of
x then x is your independent variable and y is your dependent variable. This
means that the value of y, say academic achievement depends on the value of x,
say mental ability.

The independent variable is the condition that you change in an

experiment. It is the variable you control. It is called independent because its
value does not depend on and is not affected by the state of any other variable
in the experiment. It is sometimes called predictor variables or variates.

The dependent variable is the condition that you measure in an

experiment. You are assessing how it responds to a change in the independent
variable, so you can think of it as depending on the independent variable. It is
sometimes called criterion variables.

Examples:

 In a study to determine whether how long a student sleeps affects test

scores, the independent variable is the length of time spent sleeping
while the dependent variable is the test score.

 You want to compare brands of paper towels, to see which holds the
most liquid. The independent variable in your experiment would be the
brand of paper towels. The dependent variable would be the amount of
liquid absorbed by the paper towel.

PREPARED BY: MR. RODEL E. CAHILIG, MSA | Updated: January, 2022

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 If you want to know whether caffeine affects your appetite, the

presence/absence of a given amount of caffeine would be the
independent variable. How hungry you are would be the dependent
variable.

NOTE: The easiest way to identify which variable in your experiment is the
Independent Variable (IV) and which one is the Dependent Variable (DV) is by
putting both the variables in the sentence below in a way that makes sense. “The
IV causes a change in the DV. It is not possible that DV could cause any
change in IV.”

Exercise No. 2:

In the following cases, identify which is the independent variable and

dependent variable.

1. Lemon trees receiving the most water produced the most lemons.

Independent variable –
Dependent variable -

2. An exercise physiologist wonders if carb loading (eating a lot of

carbohydrates) the day before participating in endurance activities
(such as triathlons or marathons) impacts performance.

Independent variable –
Dependent variable -

3. The amount of pollution produced by cars was measured for cars using
gasoline containing different amounts of lead.

Independent variable –
Dependent variable -

4. A researcher wants to know if education level impacts how much a

person earns in their job. She studies the amount of education a person
has in their life to their current earnings.

Independent variable –
Dependent variable -

5. A researcher explores whether people who already speak multiple

languages learn new languages faster than people who only speak one
language.

Independent variable –
Dependent variable -

PREPARED BY: MR. RODEL E. CAHILIG, MSA | Updated: January, 2022

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VARIABLES ACCORDING TO CONTINUITY OF VALUES

1. Continuous Variables – these are the variables whose levels can take
continuous values. In other words, can take on any value at any point
along with an interval.

Examples: height, weight, length, width, income, age

2. Discrete or Discontinuous Variables – these are the variables whose

values or levels cannot take the form of decimals. In other words, can take
only certain values along an interval.

Example: the size of a particular family, number of boys and girls in the
classroom, number of patients in hospital

Exercise No. 3:

Determine if the following set of data is continuous (measure) or discrete

(count).

1. Number of children in a family – Discrete

2. The height of your classmates – Continuous
3. The volume of water in a swimming pool – Continuous
4. The age of a person – Continuous
5. The number of heads when flipping a coin – Discrete

VARIABLES ACCORDING TO SCALE OF MEASUREMENT

According to the scale of measurement, we can categorize variables into

nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.

1. Nominal variable – is a type of variable that is used to name, label, or

categorize particular attributes that are being measured. It takes
qualitative values representing different categories, and there is no
intrinsic ordering of these categories.

Examples: Skin color, eye color, gender, opinion on some issue (using
categories such as agree, disagree, no opinion), name, and email
address

2. Ordinal variable – is a type of measurement variable that takes values

with an order or rank. The ordinal variable has an intrinsic order.

Examples: Position in class, exam grade, satisfaction

3. Interval variable – is a measurement variable that is used to define

values measured along a scale, with each point placed at an equal
distance from one another. An interval data does not have a “true” zero
point; although for convenience, a zero point may be arbitrarily
assigned.

PREPARED BY: MR. RODEL E. CAHILIG, MSA | Updated: January, 2022

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Examples: temperature measured in Celsius or Fahrenheit, time, age
range, etc.

4. Ratio variable – it contains all of the features of the other three (3)
levels. At the ratio level, values can be categorized, ordered, have equal
intervals, and take on a true zero. On a ratio scale, a zero means there
is a total absence of the variable of interest.

Examples: number of children, years of work experience, length,

weight, the temperature measured in Kelvin

When working with ratio variables, but not interval variables, the ratio
of two measurements has a meaningful interpretation. For example,
because weight is a ratio variable, a weight of 4 grams is twice as heavy
as a weight of 2 grams. However, a temperature of 10 degrees C should
not be considered twice as hot as 5 degrees C. If it were, a conflict would
be created because 10 degrees C is 50 degrees F and 5 degrees C is 41
degrees F. Clearly, 50 degrees is not twice 41 degrees.

Categorical Numerical
Nominal Ordinal Interval Ratio
Labeled Yes Yes Yes Yes
Meaningful order No Yes Yes Yes
Measurable difference No No Yes Yes
True zero starting point No No No Yes

Exercise No. 4:

Classify each as nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio.

1. Rankings of takers in licensure examination –

2. Salaries of the professors in CDSGA –
3. Marital status –
4. Ratings of textbooks (poor, fair, good, excellent) –
5. Time of day on a 24-hour clock –
6. Time of day on a 12-hour clock –

Note: The level of measurement for a particular variable is defined by the

highest category that it achieves. For example, categorizing someone as
extroverted (outgoing) or introverted (shy) is nominal. If we categorize people as
1 = shy, 2 = neither shy nor outgoing, 3 = outgoing, then we have an ordinal level
of measurement. If we use a standardized measure of shyness (and there are
such inventories), we would probably assume the shyness variable meets the
standards of an interval level of measurement.

PREPARED BY: MR. RODEL E. CAHILIG, MSA | Updated: January, 2022

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Wrap-Up Exercise No. 1

Review Questions:

1. Describe the nature of statistics. With your knowledge of statistics in this

sense, how do you apply it in a real-life situation? Illustrate your answer.
2. What is a population? What is a sample? Is it true that a sample is always
an approximate picture of the population? Why? What will happen if the
sample you have drawn from the population does not represent the
population?
3. Differentiate continuous and discrete variables.
4. Differentiate nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio variables.

PREPARED BY: MR. RODEL E. CAHILIG, MSA | Updated: January, 2022