DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS

Statistics are essentially mathematical procedures. Descriptive statistics are used for summarising and describing the results.
A researcher would use descriptive statistics to organise, summarise and describe the data so that they can be interpreted.
ANALYSING AND REPRESENTING QUANTITATIVE DATA
Graphs and charts give a quick visual impression of any patterns or trends in your results. They should be used to help
summarise your results.
Raw Scores (raw data) appears in a table just as it was collected. However, it may be difficult to see trends and draw
conclusions. Raw data can be re-ordered or represented in a frequency distribution table.
GRAPHS
A number of different types of graphs can be used to represent quantitative data. The type of graph you use will depend upon
the type of data collected and what information you want to show
1. Line graphs show the effect of manipulating the continuous, independent variable on the value of the dependent
variable.
2. Bar graphs show the affect of manipulating the discrete, independent variable on the value of the dependent variable.
(bars not touching one another)
3. Frequency histograms and polygons show how commonly specific events or scores occur.
E.g. Frequency histogram (no space between bars)
showing scores on a test for all Stage 2 Psychology students.
4. Scattergrams show the relationship between 2
variables, neither of which was controlled by the
experimenter. E.g. Scattergram showing the
correlation between student scores on semester 1
and semester 2 tests.(refer to notes on Quantitative
Observational)

correlations/scattergrams (see diagrams)

Relationships between two variables may show a:
- Positive correlation (i.e. as one of the variables
increases, so does the other variable)
- Negative correlation (i.e. as one variable increases,
the other variable decreases)

The strength of a relationship is shown by the value of the correlation coefficient r, which can vary in magnitude
between 0 and 1.
Measures of Central Tendency (Mean and Median)
Data are often summarised by determining a single numerical score that can describe the data for the whole group(s).
The Mean
The mean is calculated by adding the sum of all scores and dividing by the
X =
SUM OF SCORES
number of scores (that is an average of the scores is calculated)
The mean is the average of all the raw scores.
NUMBER OF SCORES
Median
To find the median:
Place all scores in ascending order (lowest to the highest)
If there is an odd number of scores, the middle score is the median
If there is an even number of scores the median is the average of the two middle scores.
Mode
This is the most frequent occurring score.

Measures of spread of data

Range: Simple measure of dispersion- shows the total spread of data. Difference between highest and lowest scores in a set
of data: top value minus bottom value plus 1. (Affected by atypical, extreme value.)
This is simply the difference between the highest and lowest scores / numbers. E.g. if the lowest height were 200cm and the
lowest 144cm the range of the data is 200-144 = 56. Due to a rounding error that can occur in getting scores the following
formula developed by Coolican is usually used viz., (highest lowest) +1. In our example the range would be (200-144) +1 =
57!

Dispersion about the Mean

Standard deviation
Standard Deviation: Measure of dispersion- shows degree of clustering of values around the mean. Calculating
standard deviation (S): Square root of sum of all squared deviations from the mean, divided by N (or sometimes N-1).
The most accurate measure of dispersion.

Often it is more useful to know how the numbers spread out from the mean (average) rather than across the whole of
the data (range). For this standard deviation is used it is calculated as follows.

In a normal distribution (bell shaped) the mean

value is at the centre on the x-axis
Most of the scores are located near the centre of the
distribution, with a few extremely high or low scores
either side of the middle.
99.7% of all scores fall within 3 standard
deviations of the mean score.
As the value of the standard deviation increases, so
does the dispersion of scores (and the range of
scores i.e. the difference between highest and lowest
scores) about the mean increase.
Sometimes the bell shaped curve is not symmetrical
leading to a skewed distribution. See text book for
examples of positively skewed (towards the lower
end of scores) and negatively skewed (towards the
higher end of scores) distributions.

Typically 68% of the results fall within one standard deviation of the mean and 95% of the results fall within 2 standard
deviations of the mean (for normally distributed data).
Commonly occurring frequency distributions
The skew of the graph is linked to the direction of its tail. On a positively skewed
distribution, there are many low scores. The tail of the graph tapers in a positive direction
towards the higher scores.
Normal Distribution If any characteristic of a very large group of individuals is measured
then plotted as a graph, the data will tend to fall in a bell-shaped pattern called a normal
distribution.
Positively Skewed Distribution a curve skewed to the left, indicating that there is
a clustering of a relatively large number of low scores
Negatively Skewed Distribution a curve skewed to the right, indicating that there
is a clustering of a relatively large number of high scores
Variability
Most research data are made up of measures or values (for example, scores) where there is some variability; that is, where
there is a spread of scores and not all scores are the same.
A measure of variability, or dispersion, indicates how widely the scores are spread or scattered around the central point.
E.g. The more widely spread from the mean, indicating high variability. For example, if you plotted data on the heights of
Year 8 students at a school,

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