1. Chapter 1

2. Page 2 Math Anxiety Do not flip through the text Familiarize yourself with the index & glossary Forget past math failures…statistics is different! Yerkes-Dodson Law: Some anxiety is helpful Over-prepare for tests to reduce test anxiety Use your resources! Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: think positive Work with a partner! Icebreaker activity

3. Page 3 Uses of Statistics Statistics: branch of mathematics that focuses on the organization, analysis & interpretation of a group of numbers. Uses: -read the work of other psychologists -do your own research -hone your reasoning & intuition

4. Page 4 Misuses of Statistics Using Correlations to infer causation Incorrect Interpretation of Data

5. Page 5 Calculator Use

6. Page 6 Descriptive vs. Inferential Statistics Descriptive statistics  Summarize/organize scores from a research study  Abbreviates data that we have  Includes percentage, range, mean, mode, median, standard deviation and variance  EX: What’s the average age of students in this class? Ask each student & average Inferential statistics  Draw conclusions/make inferences that go beyond the scores from a research study -allows statisticians to generalize from a sample to a population  Uses a small amount of data to infer characteristics about a larger group  EX: What’s the average age of students at SBVC? Ask this class & then infer about SBVC  RISKY! Especially if the sample is not representative of the population  However, predictions are made with better than chance accuracy & limitations are known

7. Page 7 Samples & Populations  Population: the entire group of people or animals in which the researcher is interested in  Sample: a smaller number of observations taken from the total number making up the population

8. Page 8 Inferential statistics is the technique of predicting unknown parameters (of a population) on the basis of known statistics (from a sample). Statistics & Parameters Parameter: any measure obtained by having measured an entire population Statistic: any measure obtained by having measured a sample