01 MMW Basic Concepts of Statistics
01 MMW Basic Concepts of Statistics
01 MMW Basic Concepts of Statistics
STATISTICS
Introduction
Statistics plays a very important role in the development of the country.
Techniques are employed in almost every phase of life. Surveys are designed to
collect early returns on the election day to forecast the outcome of the election.
Understanding its basic concepts will lead one to understand better the
applications statistics does with decision making.
In this lesson, you will be introduced to the basic concepts and principles of
statistics.
Lesson Objectives
At the end of the units, the students should be able to:
From the above definition, statistical methods therefore involve several steps
of procedures. These are the collection of data, presentation of data, analysis of data
and finally the interpretation of data.
There are two major areas of statistics. These are the descriptive statistics
and the inferential statistics.
A sample on the other hand is a subset of units or cases drawn or taken from
a population. If the population is too large that it becomes costly, impractical and
time consuming for the researcher to study, then he has to get a sample
representative of the population.
When one studies the entire population and make measures descriptive about
it, then the descriptive measures are called parameters. Parameters are
characteristics of the population.
If a researcher gets a sample and obtain measures about it, the descriptive
measures are called statistics (plural). Statistics (pl) are characteristics of a sample.
The census is a process which refers to when information or data are gathered
from all units of the population. A sample survey is a process when a part of the
population is used to obtain data.
Variables that can be assigned numerical values are called variates. The kinds
of variables depend on the kind of numbers they can be assigned with.
Data are those that are manipulated or computed statistically. These are
results of counting or measurements or observations of variable.
Summary
In its plural sense, statistics refer to the measures which describe a given
sample. These descriptive measures are numerical computations derived from a set
of data.
The major areas of statistics are the descriptive and inferential nature.
Descriptive statistics is only concerned with summarizing values to characterize
data gathered from a sample or population. Inferential statistics on the other hand,
is concerned with making generalizations from information gathered from a sample
to the population.
Population is the set of all units/cases being studied having at least one
common characteristic. A sample is a subset of units/cases taken from a
population. A sample is representative of the population.
The measures descriptive of the population are called parameters and these
are usually denoted by letters in the Greek alphabet. The measures descriptive of a
sample are called statistics (plural) are denoted by letters in the English alphabet.
There are two kinds of variables, namely: the discrete or categorical variables,
and the continuous variables. The numerical values assigned to the variables are
called variates. A variable is discreet if it can be assigned counting numbers only
as variates. A continuous variable is one which can be assigned counting numbers,
fractions or decimals which are the results of measurements of the variates.
Those which are manipulated or computed statistically are called data. Data
are classified as either qualitative or quantitative. Qualitative data refer to those
attributes or characteristics of a population or sample. Quantitative data are the
results of counting or measurements.
Finally, there are four scales or levels of measurements. These are: the
nominal, ordinal, interval, and the ratio scale.
In the nominal scale, numbers assigned to the variables are simply used to
categorize the variables. These numbers are simply given to distinguish one
observation from another.
In the ordinal scale, the variables have also categories. However, these
categories are ordered or ranked. Thus, numbers assigned are used not only to
distinguish one observation from the others, but the rank-ordering idea is assumed.
The ranked categories for the variables are also present in the interval scale.
However, the units are equally distant, thus magnitude of difference can be compared
but the location of true zero is not known.
The highest level of measurement is the ratio scale. All properties of the
interval scale are applicable in the ratio scale; with the addition of the true zero. The
zero point is absolute.