Understanding Descriptive & Inferential Stats in Psychological Research, Exams of Psychology

Download Understanding Descriptive & Inferential Stats in Psychological Research and more Exams Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! 1 Introduction to Statistics STAT Chapter 1 PSYC 201: Psychological Research I Why study statistics? So you can read and understand the professional literature and the multitude of statistical information you’re bombarded with everyday To understand why we do research the way we do, and the strengths and weaknesses of our techniques In order to do research Study Tips for Statistics Don’t be anxious Memorize the key symbols and terms and know what they mean Statistics is cumulative Understanding will only come with doing: so work lots of problems ☺ 2 Types of statistics Descriptive = techniques used to describe and/or illustrate data E.g.: Measures of Central Tendency (mean, median, mode Measures of Variability (range, variance, standard deviation) Graphical depiction of data (any kind of graph) Types of statistics Inferential = techniques that use obtained sample data to infer or draw conclusions about populations Some inferential tests: Chi Square Correlation Regression t-test Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) Defining “terms” Population = the complete set of individuals, objects, or scores that the researcher is interested in studying E.g., all residents of the city of Radford E.g., all responses of a single neuron in a rat’s hippocampus Sample = a subset of the population E.g., 200 residents of Radford E.g., every firing of the neuron within 2 10-min periods