CHAP 1: STATISTICS AND SCIENTIFIC the room in which the research is being

METHOD conducted
Definition of Statistics • Independent variable (IV)
the variable that is systematically manipulated
• a set of mathematical procedures for
by the investigator
organizing, summarizing, and interpreting
information • Dependent variable (DV)
the variable that the investigator measures to
• help ensure that the information or
determine the effect of the independent
observations are presented and interpreted in
variable
an accurate and informative way
Variables: IV and DV
• help researchers bring order out of chaos
• an investigator might be interested in the effect
• provide researchers with a set of standardized
of alcohol on social behavior
techniques that are recognized and understood
throughout the scientific community • the effect of sleep deprivation on aggressive
behavior is studied
Statistics serve two general purposes:
• How long you sleep affects your test score
• used to organize and summarize the
information so that the researcher can see what • You want to compare brands of paper towels,
happened in the research study and can to see which holds the most liquid
communicate the results to others
• If you want to know whether caffeine affects
• help the researcher to answer the questions your appetite
that initiated the research by determining
DATA
exactly what general conclusions are justified
• Data (plural) are measurements or
POPULATIONS AND SAMPLE
observations.
• population is the set of all the individuals of
• Data set is a collection of measurements or
interest in a particular study
observations
• the entire group that a researcher wishes to
• Datum (singular) is a single measurement or
study
observation and is commonly called a score or
• sample is a set of individuals selected from a raw score.
population, usually intended to represent the
PARAMETER AND STATISTICS
population in a research study
• Parameter is a value, usually a numerical
• a sample should always be identified in terms
value, that describes a population. A
of the population from which it was selected
parameter is usually derived from
measurements of the individuals in the
population.

• Statistic is a value, usually a numerical value,

that describes a sample. A statistic is usually
derived from measurements of the individuals
in the sample.
Descriptive and Inferential Statistical Methods
VARIABLES
• Descriptive statistics
Variable is a characteristic or condition that changes
or has different values for different individuals  are statistical procedures used to summarize,
organize, and simplify data.
• variables can be characteristics that differ
 techniques that take raw scores and organize
from one individual to another, such as height,
or summarize them in a form that is more
weight, gender, or personality. Also, variables
manageable
can be environmental conditions that change
 another common technique is to summarize a
such as temperature, time of day, or the size of
set of scores by computing an average
 Inferential statistics - consist of techniques that
allow us to study samples and then make
generalizations about the populations from which
they were selected.
 Sampling error is the naturally occurring
discrepancy, or error, that exists between
a sample statistic and the corresponding
population parameter.
CHAPTER 2: BASIC MATHEMATICAL AND
MEASUREMENT CONCEPTS
• sum of the squared X scores
• Square anay then add
• sum of the X scores, quantity squared
• Add anay then square
MEASUREMENT SCALE
• a measuring scale can have one or more of the
following mathematical attributes: magnitude,
an equal interval between adjacent units, and
an absolute zero point
• Four types of scales are commonly
encountered in the behavioral sciences:
nominal, ordinal,
interval, and ratio
NOMINAL SCALES
• the lowest level of measurement and is most
often used with variables that are qualitative in
nature rather than quantitative
• one that has categories for the units
• does not possess any of the mathematical
attributes of magnitude, equal interval, or
absolute zero point
• EX: brands of jogging shoes, kinds of fruit,
types of music, days of the month, nationality,
religious preference, and eye color
• When using a nominal scale, you cannot do
operations of addition, subtraction,
multiplication, division, or ratios.
ORDINAL SCALES
• With an ordinal scale, we rank-order the
objects being measured according to whether
they possess more, less, or the same amount of
the variable being measured
• numbers on the scale represent rank orderings,
rather than raw score magnitudes
• possesses a relatively low level of the property
of magnitude
• When using an ordinal scale, you cannot do
operations of addition, subtraction,
multiplication, division, or ratios.
INTERVAL SCALES
• possesses the properties of magnitude and
equal interval but doesn’t have an absolute
zero point
• When using an interval scale, you can do
operations of addition and subtraction. You
cannot do multiplication, division, or ratios.
RATIO SCALES
• has all the properties of an interval scale and,
in addition, has an absolute zero point
• When using a ratio scale, you can perform all
mathematical operations
• examples of variables measured with ratio
scales include reaction time, length, weight,
age, and frequency of any event
CONTINUOUS AND DISCRETE VARIABLES
• Continuous variable is one that theoretically can
have an infinite number of values between
adjacent units on the scale.
• Discrete variable is one in which there are no
possible values between adjacent units on the
scale
• Real limits of a continuous variable are those
values that are above and below the recorded
value by one-half of the smallest measuring unit
of the scale.
• 50 kg
• Lower real limit 49.5 kg
• Upper real limit 50.5 kg
SIGNIFICANT FIGURES
 • It is standard practice to carry all
intermediate calculations to two or more
decimal places further than will be reported
in the final answer.
• Thus, when the final answer is required to
have two decimal places, you should carry
intermediate calculations to at least four
decimal places and round the final answer to
two places.
CHAPTER 3: FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTIONS
UNGROUPED FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTIONS
 Frequency distribution
 presents the s core values and t heir frequency
of occurrence. When presented in a table, the
score values are listed in rank order, with the
lowest score value usually at the bottom of the
table.
 the major purpose of a frequency distribution
is to present the scores in such a way to
facilitate ease of understanding and
interpretation
Constructing a Frequency Distribution of Grouped
Scores
1. Finding the range.
Range = Highest score minus lowest score
2. Determining interval width (i). Let’s assume
we wish to group the data into approximately
10 class intervals.
3. Listing the intervals.
4. Tallying the scores
5. Summing into frequencies
 Relative frequency distribution indicates the
proportion of the total number
of scores that occurs in each interval.
 Cumulative frequency distribution indicates the
number of scores that fall
below the upper real limit of each interval.
 Cumulative percentage distribution indicates the
percentage of scores that
fall below the upper real limit of each interval
PERCENTILES and PERCENTILE RANK
• measures of relative standing
• used extensively in education to compare the
performance of an individual to that of a reference
group
• percentile or percentile point is the value on the
measurement scale below which a specified
percentage of the scores in the distribution fall.
• percentile rank of a score is the percentage of
scores with values lower than the score in
question.
PERCENTILE SAMPLE
• For instance, if you received a score of 95 on
a math test and this score was greater than or
equal to the scores of 88% of the students
taking the test, then your percentile rank
would be 88. You would be in the 88th
percentile.
PERCENTILE VS PERCENTAGE
• Percentile is a measure used in statistics
indicating the value below which a given
percentage of observations in a group of
observations fall; says how many students
have scored less than you on a given test
• Percentage says how much you have
performed if the test was of 100 marks.
GRAPHING FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTIONS
• Frequency distributions are often displayed as
graphs rather than tables.
• Since a graph is based completely on the
tabled scores, the graph does not contain any
new information.
• However, a graph presents the data pictorially,
which often makes it easier to see important
features of the data
GRAPHS
• vertical axis is called the ordinate, or Y axis,
and the horizontal axis is the abscissa, or X
axis.
• independent variable is plotted on the X axis
and the dependent variable on the Y axis
• score values are usually plotted on the X axis
and the frequency of the score values is plotted
on the Y axis
FOUR MAIN TYPES OF GRAPHS:
• bar graph -
• histogram
• frequency polygon
• cumulative percentage curve
BAR GRAPH
• nominal or ordinal data
• height of the bar represents the frequency or ARITHMETIC MEAN
number of members of that category
• value you ordinarily calculate when you
• no numerical relationship between the categories average something

• bars for each category in a bar graph do not touch • the sum of the scores divided by the number
each other. This further emphasizes the lack of a of scores.
quantitative relationship between the categories
Notations: Population vs. Sample
HISTOGRAM
Population Sample
• used to represent frequency distributions Mean μ ̅; M
X
composed of interval or ratio data Standard Deviation Σ S
• a bar is drawn for each class interval. The class Size N N
intervals are plotted on the horizontal axis such Arithmetic Mean: In equation form
that each class bar begins and terminates at the real
limits of the interval
FREQUENCY POLYGON

• identical to that of the histogram. However, for

this type of graph, instead of using bars, a point is
plotted over the midpoint of each interval at a
height corresponding to the frequency of the
interval
HISTOGRAM VS FREQUENCY POLYGON
• histogram displays the scores as though they were
equally distributed over the interval, whereas the
frequency polygon displays the scores as though
they were all concentrated at the midpoint of the PROPERTIES OF THE MEAN
interval.
 sensitive to the exact value of all the scores in
• Some investigators prefer to use the frequency the distribution
polygon when they are comparing the shapes of  the sum of the deviations about the mean
two or more distributions. equals zero
• The frequency polygon also has the effect of  very sensitive to extreme scores
displaying the scores as though they were  the sum of the squared deviations of all the
continuously distributed, which in many instances scores about their mean is a minimum
is actually the case.  under most circumstances, of the measures
used for central tendency, the mean is least
CHAPTER 4: MEASURES OF CENTRAL subject to sampling variation
TENDENCY AND VARIABILITY
MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY  Overall mean is equal to the sum of the mean
of each group times the number of scores in
• a summary statistic the group, divided by the sum of the number
• represents the center point or typical value of of scores in each group
a dataset

• indicate where most values in a distribution

fall

• also referred to as the central location of a

distribution

• three most often used measures of central

tendency: arithmetic mean, the median, and
the mode
 MEASURES OF VARIABILITY

• variability specifies how far apart the scores

MEDIAN are spread

• measures of central tendency are a

 second most frequently encountered measure
quantification of the average value of the
of central tendency
distribution, measures of variability quantify
 the scale value below which 50% of the
the extent of dispersion
scores fall. It is therefore the same thing as P50
 centermost score if the number of scores is • Three measures of variability are commonly
odd. If the number is even, the median is taken used in the behavioral sciences: the range,
as the average of the two centermost scores. the standard deviation, and the variance
 less sensitive than the mean to extreme scores.
Range
 under usual circumstances, the median is more
 difference between the highest and lowest
subject to sampling variability than the mean
scores in the distribution.
but less subject to sampling variability than the
 in equation form range really measures the
mode.
spread of only the extreme scores and not the
spread of any of the scores in between
STANDARD DEVIATION

 deviation score tells how far away the raw

score is from the mean of its distribution
deviation score is defined as

MODE

 most frequent score in the distribution

 easiest of the three measures to determine
 found by inspection of the scores; there isn’t
any calculation necessary Standard deviation: raw score method
 when all the scores in the distribution have the
same frequency, it is customary to say that the
distribution
has no mode
 unimodal; that is, they have only one mode
 Using this equation to find SS allows us to use
 it is possible for a distribution to have many
the raw scores without the necessity of
modes: bimodal
calculating deviation scores
 not used very much in the behavioral sciences
 avoids the decimal remainder difficulties
because it is not very stable from sample to
 raw score method is generally easier to use and
sample and often there is more than one mode
avoids potential errors
for a given set of scores.

Measures of Central Tendency and Symmetry

PROPERTIES OF STANDARD DEVIATION

 gives us a measure of dispersion relative to the

mean
  is sensitive to each score in the distribution: If
a score is moved closer to the mean, then the
standard deviation will become smaller
 like the mean, the standard deviation is stable
with regard to sampling fluctuations

VARIANCE
• score transformation - process by which the
raw score is altered

• z transformation results in a distribution

having a mean of 0 and a standard deviation
of 1.

• z scores allow us to determine the number or

percentage of scores that fall above or below
any score in the distribution.

• important use of z scores —namely, to

CHAPTER 5: THE NORMAL CURVE AND compare scores t hat a re not otherwise
STANDARD SCORES directly comparable.

NORMAL CURVE

 theoretical distribution of population scores.

 a bell-shaped curve
 has two inflection points, one on each side of
the mean.
 the inflection points are located where the
curve changes from being convex downward
to being convex upward.
 The curve is said to be asymptotic to the
horizontal axis - approaches the horizontal
axis and gets closer and closer to it, but it never
quite touches
THREE CHARACTERISTIC OF Z SCORE
• z scores have the same shape as the set of raw
scores

• mean of the z scores always equals zero

(μz=0)

• the standard deviation of z scores always

equals 1 (z=1)

CHAPTER 6: CORRELATION
RELATIONSHIPS: LINEAR RELATIONSHIP
To calculate the number of scores in each area, all we
• relationship between variables can best be
need to do is multiply the relevant percentage by the
seen by plotting a graph using the paired X
total number of scores.
and Y values for as the points on the graph.
STANDARD SCORE (Z SCORE)
• Such a graph is called a scatter plot (a graph
 a transformed score that designates how many of paired X and Y values)
standard deviation units the corresponding
raw score is above or below the mean. • linear relationship between two variables is
one in which the relationship can be most
accurately represented by a straight line.
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE RELATIONSHIP CORRELATION COEFFIECIENT
INTERPRETATION
• The slope of the line tells us whether the
relationship is positive or negative.
• Positive relationship

- indicates a direct relationship between the

variables
- Positive slope
- as X increases, Y increases.
Linear Correlation Coefficient Pearson r
 Negative relationship
- indicates an inverse relationship between X • Pearson r is a measure of the extent to which
and Y paired scores occupy the same or opposite
- Negative slope positions within their own distributions.
- as X increases, Y decreases
• Correlation must be independent of the units
 Perfect relationship a positive or negative
used in measuring the two variables
relationship exists and all of the points fall on the
line. (image a) • the most frequently encountered correlation
 Imperfect relationship a relationship exists, but coefficient in behavioral science research
all of the points do not fall on the line. (image b, CALCULATING PEARSON r
c, d)

CORRELATION

- focuses on the direction and degree of the

relationship
 Direction of the relationship:
- positive or negative
• Degree of relationship:

- refers to the magnitude or strength of the

relationship.
- can vary from nonexistent to perfect

Correlation coefficient

- expresses quantitatively the magnitude and

direction of the relationship
- can vary from +1 to –1
- the sign of the coefficient tells us whether the
relationship is positive or negative
- the numerical part of the correlation
coefficient describes the magnitude of the
correlation
- the higher the number, the greater is the
correlation
- +1 means the correlation is perfect and the
relationship is positive
- –1 means the correlation is perfect and the
relationship is negative
- 0 means the relationship is nonexistent

Relationship of r2 and explained variability
• r2 is called the coefficient of determination
• 2
r : the proportion of the total variability of Y
that is accounted for or explained by X
• If one of the variables is causal, then r2 is a
measure of the size of its effect
OTHER CORRELATION COEFFIECIENT
- In deciding which correlation coefficient to
calculate, the shape of the relationship and
the measuring scale of the data are the two
most important considerations
• Correlation coefficient η (eta)
- for curvilinear relationship (relationship
between motor skills and age)
• Spearman rank order correlation coefficient
rho (rs)
- Both ordinal scales
• Biserial correlation coefficient (rb)
- One on the interval scale one dichotomous
variable
• phi (ø) coefficient
- Each of the variables is dichotomous
Effect of Range on Correlation
- estricting the range of either of the variables
will have the effect of lowering the
correlation
Effect of Extreme Scores
- an extreme score can drastically alter
the magnitude of the correlation coefficient
Correlation Does Not Imply Causation
- whenever two variables are correlated, there
are four possible
explanations of the correlation:
1. the correlation between X and Y is spurious,
2. X is the cause of Y,
3. Y is the cause of X,
4. a third variable is the cause of the correlation
between X and Y.
CHAPTER 7: REGRESSION
• Regression and correlation are closely related
- both involve the relationship between two
variables
- both utilize the same set of basic data: paired
scores taken from the same or matched
subjects
• Regression focuses on using the relationship for
prediction
• Regression is a topic that considers using the
relationship between two or more variables for
prediction.
• Regression line is a best fitting line used for
prediction.
REGRESSION LINE
• is called the regression line of Y on X, or
simply the regression of Y on X, because we
are predicting Y given X.
• The regression line represents our best
estimate of the Y scores, given their
corresponding X values.
• The standard error of estimate gives us a
measure of the average deviation of the
prediction
errors about the regression line.
Homoscedasticity
• assumption of homoscedasticity: the
variability of Y
remains constant as we go from one X score
to the next
• The homoscedasticity assumption implies
that if we divided the X scores into columns,
the variability of Y would not change from
column to column
MULTIPLE REGRESSION

- an extension of simple regression to

situations that involve two or more predictor
variables.
- the general form of the multiple regression
equation for two predictor variables is

R2 or r2

- coefficient of determination
- the proportion of the variance in the
dependent variable that is predictable from
the independent variable(s)