Chapter 6: Becoming Acquainted with Statistical Concepts SFM 651: Research Methods Dr. Johnson

What exactly are we talking about here? An objective means of interpreting a collection of observations Height vs standing long jump Prove it Using statistics

Types of equipment Hardware Software Physical things Programs Computer Keyboard Screen Software Programs SPSS

T-test A statistical technique to assess differences between 2 groups Is there a significant difference between these two things?

Sampling Random Stratified random Systematic Random assignment Truly random pick of participants Stratified random Population divided into a characteristic (age) Then random sampling of that group Systematic Select every XXX person on a list Random assignment Randomly assigning to a group

Unit of Analysis Related to sampling and statistical analysis that refers to what is considered most basic unit from which data can be produced. Individual participant Class School

Central tendencies Mean – Average score Median – middle score Mode – most frequent score

Confidence Confidence interval – how sure are we that we are right Standard error – variability in the sampling Frequency distribution – representation of the frequencies and how often they occur (often visual – chart)

Non parametric – anything that isn’t parametric Parametric – assumes normal distribution, equal variance and independence of observations Can assume that future observations will fall in the given range. Non parametric – anything that isn’t parametric