Lesson 3 Basic Term in Statistics Learning outcomes: At the end of the lesson, the learner is able to: Define universe and differentiate it with population; and
Define and differentiate between qualitative and
quantitative variables, and between discrete and continuous variables Number Usual Daily Usual Classes Height Age of Usual food number Happine of Daily Most Usual of Weight mother expenditur of text Preferred ss Student Sex siblings (in (in Allowance e messages Sleeping Index for (in (in kg) in school Color Time Number feet) years) (in pesos) in school sent in a the Day person) (in pesos) day
1 M 4 54 6”5’ 31 30 10 3 Blue 7:00pm 10
2 F 4 39 5”6’ 41 50 40 50 Gray 9:40pm 8
3 F 4 48 5”4’ 44 50 20 25 Blue 10:00pm 8
4 F 4 43 5”4’ 31 40 20 24 white 10:00pm 7
Basic Terms in Statistics 1. Universe - as the collection or set of units or entities from whom we got the data. - this set of units answers the first W’s of data contextualization. Example: - the set of students of this Statistics and Probability class is our universe. 2. Variable A variable is a characteristic that is observable or measurable in every unit of the universe. Example: Age, number of siblings, weight, height, age of mother, usual daily allowance in school, usual daily food expenditure in school, usual number of text messages sent in a day, most preferred color, usual sleeping time and happiness index for the day. 3. Population The set of all possible values of a variable is referred to as a population. The number of population in a study will be equal to the number of variables observed. Example: In the data collection activity we had, there are 12 populations corresponding to 12 variables. 4. Sample
A subgroup of a universe or of a population
BROAD CLASSIFICATION OF VARIABLES Qualitative Variables express a categorical attribute, such as sex (male or female), religion, marital status, region of residence, highest educational attainment. Qualitative variables do not strictly take on numeric values (although we can have numeric codes for them, e.g., for sex variable, 1 and 2 may refer to male, and female, respectively). Qualitative data answer questions “what kind.” Qualitative Variables Sometimes, there is a sense of ordering in qualitative data, e.g., income data grouped into high, middle and low-income status. Data on sex or religion do not have the sense of ordering, as there is no such thing as a weaker or stronger sex, and a better or worse religion. Qualitative variables are sometimes referred to as categorical variables. Quantitative Variables otherwise called numerical data, whose sizes are meaningful, answer questions such as “how much” or “how many”. Quantitative variables have actual units of measure. Examples of quantitative variables include the height, weight, number of registered cars, household size, and total household expenditures/income of survey respondents. Quantitative data may be further classified into: a. Discrete Data are those data that can be counted, e.g., the number of days for cellphones to fail, the ages of survey respondents measured to the nearest year, and the number of patients in a hospital. These data assume only (a finite or infinitely) countable number of values. b. Continuous data are those that can be measured, e.g. the exact height of a survey respondent and the exact volume of some liquid substance. The possible values are uncountably infinite. TYPE OF QUANTITATIVE VARIABLE TYPE OF VARIABLE VARIABLE Class Student Number Qualitative
Sex Qualitative
Number of Siblings Quantitative Discrete
Weight ( in kilograms) Quantitative Continuous
Height ( in centimeters) Quantitative Continuous
Age of Mother Quantitative Discrete
Usual Daily Allowance in School (in Quantitative Discrete
pesos) Usual Daily Food Expenditure in Quantitative Discrete School (in pesos) Usual Number of Text Messages Quantitative Discrete Sent in a Day Usual Sleeping Time Qualitative
Most Preferred Color Qualitative
Happiness Index for the Day Qualitative
A survey of students in a certain school is conducted. The survey questionnaire details the information on the following variables. For each of these variables, identify whether the variable is qualitative or quantitative, and if the latter, state whether it is discrete or continuous. a. number of family members who are working b. ownership of a cell phone among family members c. length (in minutes) of longest call made on each cell phone owned per month d. ownership/rental of dwelling e. amount spent in pesos on food in one week f. occupation of household head g. total family income h. number of years of schooling of each family member i. access of family members to social media j. amount of time last week spent by each family member using the internet