Ms. Saint-Paul A.P. Psychology Unit 2 (M8): Statistics in Psychological Research: Measures of Central Tendency Ms. Saint-Paul A.P. Psychology

Statistics in Psychology The collection, classification, analysis, and interpretation of numerical psychological data Descriptive Statistics: Describes collected data Frequency Distribution: ( How much sleep high school students get every night)) Bar Graph Histogram

Statistics in Psychology Types of Psychological Data: Nominal: Categorical Non-numerical; cannot compute mean Bar graph (E.g. Favorite ice cream flavor) Ordinal: Ordered (E.g. 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place)

Statistics in Psychology Types of Psychological Data: Interval: Equal interval between points; no true zero point Numerical; can compute mean Histogram (E.g. Degrees in Fahrenheit) Ratio: true zero point E.g. the recipe for making pancakes is 3 cups of flower and 2 cups of milk. So the ratio is 3:2

Likert Scale

Commuting Likert Scale in Spss https://youtu.be/Oc3X8FlJKWo

Measures of Central Tendency Mean: The arithmetic average of a distribution Obtained by adding all scores together, and dividing by the number of scores Median: The middle score of a distribution Half of the scores are above it and half are below it Mode: The most frequently occurring score(s) in a distribution

Distributions Normal Distribution: Symmetrical, Bell-shaped distribution Mean, Median, Mode all are the same

Measures of Variation Range: Standard Deviation: The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution higher range = greater spread Lower range= less spread Standard Deviation: Distance between each score from the mean Great accuracy because all score are involve in the calculation.

Do-Now: (In Journal) Differentiate between the following types of data: Nominal Ordinal Interval Ratio What is a normal distribution? What are statistics? Why are statistics important in social sciences? How are the following measures of central tendency found? Mean Median Mode