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Descriptive and Inferential Statistics

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Descriptive and Inferential Statistics
PSY/315 Statistical Reasoning in Psychology
September 21, 2013
Dr. Nancy Walker

Descriptive and Inferential Statistics
Statistics is “a branch of mathematics that focuses on the organization, analysis, and interpretation of a group of numbers” (Aron, Aron, & Coups, 2009, p. 2). However, just the mention of statistics makes people nervous, although when properly understood, many of the questions statistics tries to answer are very provocative and challenging. Statistics are a collection of information and, data that helps test the theory something is happening or will happen again. The functions of statistics are there to help researchers have a better understanding of a phenomenon. Statistics can be used when looking for the truth, if you have ever had a hunch about something, was it confirmed? Yes the hunch was confirmed. Statistics help researchers with data by using math and working with a group of numbers. Statistics studies variables, characteristics that have different values, values, possible number that a score can have, and score one person value of a variable (Aron, Aron, & Coups, 2009). Descriptive and inferential statistics are to evaluate results and enable one to make a conclusion. Descriptive statistics are a way to describe data (Laird Statistics, 2013), as well as to “summarize and describe a group of numbers from a research study,” whereas, inferential statistics are used to “draw conclusions and inferences based on numbers from a research study” but go beyond those numbers (Aron, Aron, & Coups, 2009, p. 2). If one thinks of statistics as a tool instead of a mathematical issue, one would learn how valuable statistics can be. The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences between descriptive and inferential statistics as well as the functions of statistics.

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