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EDUC 502: Introduction to Statistics

EDUC 502: Introduction to Statistics. Lesson 1: Introduction, stats and the research process, basic data entry in excel and spss. What are statistics?. What are statistics?. What are statistics?. Statistics are a way to make sense of data Is there a significant difference between groups?

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EDUC 502: Introduction to Statistics

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  1. EDUC 502: Introduction to Statistics Lesson 1: Introduction, stats and the research process, basic data entry in excel and spss

  2. What are statistics?

  3. What are statistics?

  4. What are statistics? • Statistics are a way to make sense of data • Is there a significant difference between groups? • How does one variable change in relation to another? • Does an experimental manipulation affect behavior or performance? • What predicts success or failure?

  5. Don’t be afraid of statistics • The math that we will be discussing is simple and you do not need to be a math whiz to understand statistics • The trickiest part is getting over the notation • Statistics are extremely useful and very much worth the effort

  6. So why do I need to learn statistics? To conduct your own quantitative research to answer questions and provide support for hypotheses To find patterns and make comparisons with coded qualitative data To understand the methods of and be able to interpret others’ research To become a more savvy consumer of information

  7. Basic Math Review • Order of operations • Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally • P: Parentheses (sometimes brackets) • E: Exponents (including square roots) • M: Multiplication • D: Division • A: Addition • S: Subtraction

  8. Rounding • Text gives a hard and fast rule for how far out to carry decimal places, but you should also consider what makes sense for the data • Always do calculations with at least one extra decimal than you plan on reporting, then when you are done calculating, do the rounding • 4 or less round down • 3.64 = 3.6 • 6 or more round up • 3.66 = 3.7 • 5 round down if even, round up if odd • 3.65 = 3.6 • 3.75 = 3.8 • Since five is directly in the middle, this helps things balance out instead of just rounding up

  9. More Math Review • Transformation • Something we do to every score • Proportion • A decimal between 0 and 1, sometimes sown in fractional form or a percentage • .1 = 10% = 1 out of 10 = 1/10 • Graphing • We will be going over various principles of graphically presenting data with each type of data and analysis we cover

  10. Basics of the Research Process • Population vs. Sample • Population = the entire group you are interested in generalizing to • Sample = a small subset of that population you use be able to make generalizations to the population • Participants = members of our sample • Random Sampling • What we do (typically and usually ideally) to try to ensure that our sample is representative of our population • We will discuss different sampling methods later (especially next semester)

  11. Basics of the Research Process • Variables • Anything that can be measured and may vary within or between people • Can be either quantitative or qualitative (classification) • Relationship • When variables change consistently in relation to one another • Stronger relationships show more consistency in the change among variables

  12. Basics of the Research Process

  13. Basics of the Research Process • Thinking back to our example data, statistics are going to help us determine what relationships are present, how strong they are, and if they are likely there because there is a real relationship or if it is just by chance • This is inferential statistics • Descriptive Statistics • Describe your data or your sample • Help organize and summarize data

  14. Basics of the Research Process • Experiments vs. Correlational Studies • In an experiment you have independent and dependent variables (IVs and DVs) • You manipulate the IVs to see if changing the level of the IV results in a change in the DV • This helps you infer causation of one variable on another • In a correlational study you do not manipulate the variables and therefore you typically cannot determine the direction of causation

  15. Basics of the Research Process • Measurement Scales • Nominal = difference is in name only, cannot be quantified • Ordinal = rank order, no defined distance between scores • Interval = quantity with equal distance between scores, no absolute zero so can have negative numbers • Ratio = quantity with equal distance between scores and an absolute zero so that 0 means there is none of that thing • Continuous vs. Discrete • Continuous = can have fractions • Discrete = whole numbers only • Dichotomous = only two options

  16. Basic Data Entry in Excel and SPSS

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