Chapter 3: A Statistics Refresher

What are Scales of Measurement?

• Nominal
– Categories
• Ordinal
– Magnitude
• Interval
– Magnitude and equal interval
• Ratio
– All others and has a true zero point

Examples
• Groups of low, medium, high?

• How much you like something?

– 1 not at all 5 very much

Frequency Distribution
• Summary information of scores and their occurrence.

Grouped Frequency Distribution

• Intervals replace specific values
– Identification of 12-15 class intervals recommended

Example of G.F.D.
• 20 students surveyed.
– Values are the number of alcoholic beverages.
– How do you create a frequency distribution using six classes?

Steps
• Step 1: Find the highest and lowest values: H = 11 and L = 0.
• Step 2: Find the range:
R = H – L = 11 – 0 = 11.
• Step 3: Select the number of classes desired. In this case: 6.
• Step 4: Find the class width by dividing the range by the number of classes. Width = 11/6
= 1.83. Value is rounded up.
• Step 5: Select a starting point for the lowest class limit: 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10.
• Step 6: Upper class limits will be 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11.
Most Common Graphs
• Histogram
• Frequency Polygon
• Ogive

Histogram
• Intervals = columns; Height = frequency

Frequency Polygon
• Intervals points; Plotted at middle.

Ogive
• Represents the cumulative frequency.

Measures of Central Tendency

• Mean
• Median
• Mode

Mean
• Average score

Mode
• Most commonly occurring score
• Can you have more than one?
• Can you have no mode?

Mode Example
• Ten different sports cars were tested for 0-60mph times.
• Data set: 4.2, 4.5, 4.5, 4.5, 5, 5.2, 5.5, 5.5, 5.5, 6.2, 6.2

Median (MD)
• Rank scores, the median is the middle score .
• Number of scores above and below it?
– 50th percentile
• Even number of scores, median is the average between the two middle scores.

Measures of Variability
• Extent of dispersion around central tendency
• Variability is useful in interpreting individual differences in the distribution
• Range
• Variance
• Standard Deviation
Range
• Difference between extreme scores
• Highest score is 100, lowest score is 55?

Variance
• Variance is equal to the sum of the squared deviations divided by the total number of scores

Variance Problem
• Summing the deviations about the mean cancels out the differences (i.e., “0”)
• Square the deviations
• Squaring the deviation results in positive numbers, though inflated/distorted
• What do we do?

Standard Deviation
• Square root of the squared deviations about the mean

Standard Deviation Pluses

• Expresses individual standings
• Shows the dispersion of a distribution
• Allows comparisons across independent distributions
– As long as they have the same SD

Properties of a Curve
• Skewness
– Positive and Negative
• Kurtosis
• Leptokurtic
• Mesokurtic: Normal Curve
• Properties of a Curve
• Platykurtic

What is a Normal Curve?

• Bell-shaped curve representing a symmetrical distribution of scores
• Mean, mode, median are equal

Figure of a Normal Curve

• The normal curve is a frequency polygon

What Does the Area Under the Normal Curve Convey?

• Area of the curve describes the proportional distribution of scores
• Typically understood in terms of standard deviations from the mean
Standard Deviation Cutpoints of a Normal Curve
• 50% (median) cuts the distribution in half
• 34% is one standard deviation above or below the mean
• 68% between -1 and +1 standard deviations
• 96% between -2 and +2 standard deviations
• 99.7% between -3 and +3 standard deviations

Area Under the Normal Curve

• 34% is one standard deviation above or below the mean
• 68% between -1 and +1 standard deviations
• 47.7% of the curve is between 0 and 1.96 sd units
• 95% of the curve is between –1.96 and +1.96 sd units

Skewed Distribution Problems

• We can’t normally make comparisons
• Mathematically, we can try to normalize (perform a non-linear transformation) the
distribution
• Convert raw scores to percentile ranks then to z-scores
• Not desirable, generally, you want to obtain a normal curve

What are Standard Scores?

• Standard scores are linearly transformed scores
• Raw scores are mathematically computed that make scores comparable
• A standard score distribution maintains the same shape as the original raw score
distribution
• Best example is the z score

Standard score (z scores)

• z score expressed in standard deviation units (0 +/- 1)
• What is the z score of a score of 50 on a test with a mean of 30 and a standard deviation of
10?

Standard score (T scores)

• T score expressed in standard deviation units as well (50 +/- 10)
• What is the T score of a raw score falling 2 standard deviations above the mean would be
equal to a T of ???