statistics «is the science of organizing, describing and anal Seatsqhe term statistics is also used to refer to indices which are derivea fom data through statistical procedures. Examples of such indices include: sroans, standard deviation, correlation coefficient, beta coefficient, ete. An jnaex which is descriptive of a sample is called a statistic; if the index is descriptive of a population, it is referred to as a parameter. Therefore the ‘nean of sample is a statistic while the mean of population ig parameter. sample statistic is assumed to be an unbiased estimate of the population parameter. Y2iNg quantitative Descriptive statistics Descriptive statistics are indices that describe a given sample. Examples of descriptive statistics are: measures of central tendency (mean, mode, median), measures of dispersion (range, standard deviation, variance), distributions (percentages, frequencies) and relationships (correlations). Inferential statistics Inferential statistics are a branch of statistics which researchers use to draw inferences about a given phenomenon in the population, Such inferences are based on the results from a randomly selected sample. The purpose of inferential statistics is to_test hypotheses and enable the researcher ‘generalize the results from the sample to the population. Objectives Ww An objective is any kind of desired end or condition. Objectives in research studies refer to specific aspects of the phenomenon under study that the researcher desires to bring ut at the end of the research study. For example, a researcher may want to carry out a study on the factors that contribute to malnutrition of children in Kenya. The objectives of such modywoilbey; = a : urished 1. Establish the socioeconomic status of the parents of malne! children, 2. Explore how knowledgeable the parents are about nut 3. Identify the steps taken by parents to curb malm families, Identify the common causes of malnutrition in K* sition in children utrition in thei 4, enya 13