Probability and Statistical Analysis 1

Worksheet
PSYCH/625 Version 5

University of Phoenix Material

Probability and Statistical Analysis Worksheet
Complete Parts A, B, and C below.

Part A

1. Why is a z score a standard score? Why can standard scores be used to compare scores from
different distributions? Why is it useful to compare different distributions?
a. A z-score is a standard score due to it represents values that are above or below
the mean of the statistics. It compares the sample from the known standard
deviate.
b. Standard score cannot be used to compare scores from dissimilar distributions since it
applies to samples where the mean and standard deviation is known. It therefore
applies to only a normal distribution.
c. It is important to compare different distributions to spot if they are the identical or not.
The z-score is useful in contrasting samples from normally distributed distributions.

2. For the following set of scores, fill in the cells. The mean is 74.13 and the standard deviation is 9.98.

Raw score Z score

68.0 -.25

57.2 –1.6

82.0 1.5

84.4 1.8

69.0 -0.125

66 –0.5

85.0 1.875

83.6 1.7

72.0 0.25

3. Questions 3a through 3d are based on a distribution of scores with X =75 and the standard deviation
= 6.38. Draw a small picture to help you see what is required.

a. What is the probability of a score falling between a raw score of 70 and 80?
a. a. Z at 70=0 Z at 80=1.56. The difference 1.56-0=+1.56
b. What is the probability of a score falling above a raw score of 80?
a. a. Z at 80=1.56 Z at 100=4.702. The difference 5.702-1.56=+3.142
c. What is the probability of a score falling between a raw score of 81 and 83?
a. a. Z at 81=1.724 Z at 83=2.038. The difference 2.038-1.724=+0.3136
d. What is the probability of a score falling below a raw score of 63?

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 Probability and Statistical Analysis 2
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a. a. Z at 63=-1.09 Z at 0=10.97. The difference -10.97+1.09=-9.88

4. Jake needs to score in the top 10% in order to earn a physical fitness certificate. The class mean is
78 and the standard deviation is 5.5. What raw score does he need?
a. (x-78)/5.5=.9 Minimum required score of 85.04

Part B

The questions in Part B require that you access data from the Pulse Rate Dataset.

The data is based on the following research problem:

Ann conducted a study on the things that may affect pulse rate after exercising. She wants to describe the
demographic characteristics of a sample of 55 individuals who completed a large-scale survey. She has
demographic data on the participants’ gender (two categories), their age (open ended), their level of
exercise (three categories), their height (open ended), and their weight (open ended).

5. Using Microsoft® Excel® software, run descriptive statistics on the gender and level of exercise
variables. From the output, identify the following:

a. Percent of men
b. Mode for exercise frequency
c. Frequency of high level exercisers (exercise level 1) in the sample

Gender
Formula Percent
Men 28 28/55*100 50.91%
Women 27
Total 55

Mode for Exercise Frequency

Formula Mode
High 6
Moderate 33
Low 16
55 55/3 18.33

Mean Frequency of High Level Exercisers

10.90
High 6 6+33+16/3
Mean

Moderate 33 44.33

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 Probability and Statistical Analysis 3
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PSYCH/625 Version 5

Low 16

6. Using Microsoft® Excel® software, run descriptive statistics to summarize the data on the age variable,
noting the mean and standard deviation. Copy and paste the output from Microsoft® Excel® into this
worksheet.

20.0363636
Mean 4

2.68716866
Standard Deviation 3

Part C

Answer the questions below in at least 90 words. Be specific and provide examples when relevant.

Cite any sources consistent with APA guidelines.

Question Answer

How does understanding probability help you
understand inferential statistics?
Inferential statistics assist in helping the
researcher to make correct conclusions which will
expand beyond the immediate data by itself. The
utilization of inferential statistics will assist in
making
conclusions from the sample data that the people
would have faith in. Probability is how likely that
something is to happen. Probability is used in
everyday life in risk evaluations and is helpful in
inferential statistics. Understanding probability will
assist one in the understanding of
inferential statistics when one attempts to
formulate the conclusions with the use of
probability one can make an educated look into
what may occur.

When have you used probability in everyday
life? How did you use it?
I recently began investing a small amount of
money in the stock market. When considering
what to invest in the market you have to make
educated decisions based on what the probability
is for that stock to grow. You have examine if you
will be investing for a short time, or if this is
something that you will be investing in long term.
There were a lot of people who recently had
invested in the game stop stock when they saw it
soaring with growth, however if you were not
already invested in that stock you would need to
evaluate the probability of that stock decreasing

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Which do you think would be a more serious
violation: a Type I or Type II error? And why?
What are the characteristics that separate
parametric and nonparametric tests?
What does statistical significance mean? How
do you know if something is statistically
significant? What is the difference between
statistical significance and practical
significance?
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Probability and Statistical Analysis 4
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PSYCH/625 Version 5
once it burst.
Whether a Type I or Type II error is considered a
more serious violation would totally depend on the
situation involved within the scenario. Both Type I
and Type II errors can be serious issues.
Where Type I errors being an error in the
rejection of the null hypothesis when it is in reality
true. It can be a serious error when with a Type II
error occurs when stating that there are
true differences between the existing groups. It
becomes more serious situation in a statistical
error with a Type II error when there is a total
failure in rejecting the null hypothesis if it is true. In
the end, it really does depend on the individual
situation. The Type II errors can be avoided by
being certain that the sample is large enough to
have the visible ability to see the differences when
they are truly there. With Type I errors we can
attempt to avoid the risk of error by using the
confidence level ahead of making conclusions.
Parametric tests allow one to make fixed
speculations concerning a particular data set and
then utilizing this data coming from a specific
population using a normal distribution. For smaller
assumptions concerning the data set,
nonparametric testing can be utilized. Parametric
tests are considered the most basic statistical
methods used, as they will have higher statistical
powers. The Pearson Product-Moment
Correlation,
according to Jackson (2017), “is a parametric
method of making calculations between two
variables. Where the two variables need to be
normally distributed. The Spearman Rank
Correlation Coefficent is considered a
nonparametric correlation test as it is utilized if the
data is ordinal, and not interval”.
Statistical significance is when one believes that
the statistic is reliable. Statistical
significance is important to a person conducting
the research as it will describe the researchers’
findings which could be used in or help as a
decision making tool. When the p-value is
determined to be less than or equal to the pre-set
significance level, this will make the data
statistically significant. Therefore, statistically
significant would be considered the probability
where a relationship that exists between at least
two or more variable is a result of something that
is not a coincidence. Being statistically significant
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is the interpretation if the null hypothesis turns out

to be true, a small probability that one will be large
or
larger, as this results in an individual to be certain
of the result being reliable and true. With statistical
significance is considered numerical and sample
size crucial. Therefore, the practical significance
comes out of appropriateness concerning the
outcome with resolution making. Practical
significance is considered an extra subject and
therefore, relies on the outer factors such as cost,
time and effectiveness. This is important, statistical
significance refuses or denies practical
significance, although, it remains practically
significant, whereas, the data must be significantly
significant.

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