INTRODUCTION TO
STATISTICS
Why statistics in
Psychology?
◦ Understand/ interpret data
◦ Present the findings to a reader/readers
◦ Make decisions about whether the findings
support your claims/ assumptions
◦ Example: how do you understand anxiety, stress
in numbers?
◦ Data can be represented numerically in different
ways – the raw data is later summarised
Variables and Constants
◦ A variable is something that can be changed or varied
◦ Variables are generally used in psychology experiments to determine if changes
to one thing result in changes to another.
◦ Types- Independent, Dependent, Extraneous and Confounding variables
◦ Independent variable- manipulated by the experimenter
◦ Dependent variable- variable measured and may be changed due to the IV
◦ Extraneous variable- may have an impact on the relationship between the
independent and dependent variables (participant and situational variables)
Confounding variable- those which cannot be controlled. can have an impact
on the dependent variable, which can make it difficult to determine if the results
are due to the influence of the independent variable, the confounding variable or
an interaction of the two
Constants
◦ A value that remains the same
◦ All other factors that could affect the outcome must be strictly controlled by keeping them
Constants
◦ For example, a researcher is interested in finding out if breastfeeding led to higher IQ in
children
◦ Factors like socioeconomic status, mother's age, or family setup, among other things that can
affect IQ
◦ The experimenter must find a way to control all of the other factors that could affect IQ
scores- turning them to constants
◦ Select participants that only come from the middle class, with mothers’ age ranging from 25-
30 years old, in a nuclear family setup
◦ One group would be children who were exclusively breastfed from birth until weaning, and
the other group would be composed of children who were exclusively formula-fed from birth
until weaning
◦ Two major types of variable that can
produce two different forms of data
Example:
Categorical ◦ Do you like online class?
and Measured ◦ Which is your favorite Avenger?
variables ◦ How angry are you?
◦ Category system- either here or there
◦ Measure of variation/degree of
variation
◦ Depending on the type of variable there
are different levels of measurement
Levels of ◦ Nominal
Mesaurement ◦ Ordinal
◦ Interval
◦ Ratio
Nominal level of measurement
◦ The nominal level of measurement refers to data that are categorical
◦ We must be able to place each item or person in just one category, for purposes
of comparison.
◦ Example- Arts, Science, Management
Ordinal level of measurement
◦ Represent rank position in a group
◦ Does not talk about distances between the positions
◦ Example: Rank position in class, Winner position in a competition, rank your
order of preference for fast- food
Interval level of measurement
◦ An interval scale is a more precise measurement
◦ Tells us how many intervals on the scale each person is from anyone else.
◦ Psychological constructs are understood as interval scales
◦ Example: Likert scale, temperature (Fahrenheit and Celsius scale)
Ratio level of measurement
◦ All the measures of physical quantities we are familiar with, including weight,
length, time, pressure
◦ Presence of an absolute zero
◦ Example: account balance, number of customers in a shop, number of sales
Descriptive statistics
◦ To analyse data and draw conclusions
◦ The analysis of the raw data that helps describe, show or summarize data in a
meaningful way
◦ Eg:- 100 students responded to a happiness survey
◦ Two general types of statistics used to describe data
◦ Measure of central tendency and measures of spread
◦ Ameasure of central tendency is a single value that attempts to describe a set
of data by identifying the central position within that set of data.
◦ Mean, median and mode
◦ Mean= average
◦ Median= middles score
Example: 65, 55, 89, 56, 35, 14, 56, 55, 87, 45, 92
Arrange from smallest to largest
14, 35, 45, 55, 55, 56, 56, 65, 87, 89, 92
◦ If there are an even number of scores
65 55 89 56 35 14 56 55 87 45
◦ Arrange in the order of magnitude
14 35 45 55 55 56 56 65 87 89
◦ Take the 5th and 6th score in our data set and average them to get a median of
55.5
◦ Mode= the most frequent score in the data set
◦ Can be used with categorical data- to know the most common/popular option
◦ Measures of spread-describing how spread the scores are
◦ Commonly used measure is standard deviation
◦ How far each vale in the data set is away from the mean
◦ Descriptive statistics it is useful to summarize our group of data using a
combination of tabulated description (i.e., tables), graphical description (i.e.,
graphs and charts) and statistical commentary (i.e., a discussion of the results)
◦ Inferential statistics is also used to analyse and draw conclusions about the
data set, but mostly to make generalizations about the population
Eg:- Adjustment and well- being of college students
