BASIC STATISTICS

1.0 An Introduction
1.1 Meaning of Statistics

The word statistics means different things to different people. To a student, statistics refer to the test
results that he obtained for all his subjects. To a guidance counselor, statistics are IQ scores and other
standardized test scores. To a high school principal, statistics pertain to enrollment figures, reports on
absenteeism, and salaries of teachers. To a basketball enthusiast, statistics are the number of shots, number of
free throws, and number of fouls. To an ordinary person, statistics simply means any set of quantitative or
numerical data.
Statistics refers to the science which deals with the collection, organization, presentation, analysis, and
interpretation of quantitative data.
1.2 Application of Statistics
Statistical methods are indispensable tools in many researchers in education, psychology, medicine,
business, agriculture, and other disciplines. In school, statistics is applied to formulate policies on admission
and readmission of students, to devise a system of measurement and evaluation, to determine which among
several known methods of instruction is best for certain concepts or skills, and to determine the relationship
between educational performance and socioeconomic status.
In business, statistics is useful in the areas of finance, production, quality control, promotion and
advertising, and marketing. Medical researchers use statistical tools to evaluate the effectiveness of some
medical practices in the prevention of particular diseases and to test the effectiveness of drugs. Statistics is also
vital tool for behavioral scientists who want to determine the effects of certain treatments or conditions to
human behaviors. For example, what is the effect of anxiety on a specific task performance? Are the children
from small families better achievers than those coming from large families? Does alcohol affect the productivity
of workers? These are but few questions whose answer may be obtained with the use of statistics.
1.3 Descriptive and Inferential Statistics
Descriptive statistics is concerned with the collection, organization, and presentation of data in a form
that is understandable to all. Thus, the objective of descriptive statistical analysis is to summarize some of the
important features of a set of data. Construction of tables and graphs, and computation of measures such as
averages and percentages fall within this area of statistics.
Inferential statistics is concerned with the formulation of conclusions or generalizations about a
population based on an observation or a series of observations of a sample drawn from the population.
Population means the complete set of individuals, objects, places, or events under study. A sample is defined a
subset of a population.

Statistical investigators often do not consider making an exclusive study of an entire population because
of constraints related to cost, the time needed, and the laborious kind of work required in handling a vast
magnitude of data.
1.4 Quantitative and Qualitative Data
 2
In the initial stage of statistical inquiry, the researcher usually defines the variables relevant to his
problem. Any quantity which may take on different values is a variable; that which does not vary or is fixed is a
constant. There are two major classifications of variables: qualitative and quantitative.
Variables such as sex, color, student classification by year level, religion, occupation, and level of
performance on a job are called qualitative variables. Information obtained from this type of variables are
called qualitative data.
While the data arising from qualitative differ in kind, those obtained from quantitative variables differ
by how much. Specifically, they indicate how much of a given characteristic an individual, object, or event
possesses. Variables like age, monthly income, size of family, hourly output of a machine, and length of service
are quantitative variables.
There are two kinds of variables: the continuous variable and discontinuous or discrete variable. A
continuous variable is a variable, which may take any value within a specified range of values that have no
break or gap. For example, if we measure the weight of a baby, no matter what care we exercise in so doing, we
will never be able to determine his exact weight, His weight, for instance may range from 5.999 kg to 5.9998
kg. Variables like height, volume, and age are continuous variables.
A discontinuous or discrete variable, on the other hand, can take specific values only. It is variable
whose values have breaks, gaps, or jumps. For example, if we count the number of carabaos in a given farm, the
possible values that we may get are 0,1,2,3… 1000, etc. the number of carabaos cannot take a value like
25.0973.
In general, measurement gives rise to continuous data, while counting gives rise to discrete data.
1.5 Measurement Scales
The following are four levels or types of measurement or ways of assigning numerals to variable:
1. Nominal Measurement. It is merely used to differentiate classes or categories for purely classification
or identification purposes. For instance, the respondents in a survey may be categorized as males or
females. The two groups formed can be identified by using numbers like 1 for male group and 0 for
female group or vice versa. Since these numbers are merely used for identification purposes, no meaning
can be attached to the magnitude or size of such numbers. The assignment of these numbers is arbitrary.
Other examples of the use of nominal measurement are the assignment of numbers to basketball players,
houses, office rooms, and telephones.

2. Ordinal Measurement. Ordinal scales do not only classify but also order classes. Ordinal measurement
which is expressed in ranks is possible if different degrees of an attribute or property are present.
Examples of ordinal measurements are the ranks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 given by the judges to the five finalists in a
beauty contest. With ordinal measurement, we can talk of “less than” or “greater than” in terms of the
attribute in question; hence we say that ordinal measurement can order classes.

3. Interval Measurement. Interval measurement has the attributes of ordinal measure plus one more: it can
differentiate between any two classes in terms of degrees of differences. Examples of interval
measurements are mental ability scores, achievement scores, and temperatures in degrees Celsius. With
interval measurements, addition and subtraction have meanings.
 3

4. Ratio Measurement. Ratio measurement differs from interval measurement only in one aspect: it has a
true zero which indicates a total absence of the property being measured. Examples are length (0 length
means no length at all), age, and number of children in a family. If Michelle is 160 cm tall and Kristine
is 80 cm tall, we can say that Michelle is twice as tall than Kristine. With ratio measurements,
multiplication and division have meanings.

1.6 Basic Mathematical Notations

Some mathematical symbols appear with great regularity in statistics. Among them are X, Y, n, f, and
. The letters X and Y shall be used to denote variables while n shall represent the total number of values
or scores obtained for a particular variable. The Greek letter (read sigma) shall be employed to signify
that the sum of the values of the variable.

The symbol shall mean that we add all values of X from 1 to n. this notation is read

“the summation of all values of X from 1 to n.”

Thus if

Summation Rules:
The following are some rules governing summation:
RULE 1. The summation of a constant from 1 to n is equal to the product of the constant and n.

Example:

RULE 2. The summation of the sum of a variable and a constant is equal to the summation of the variable plus
the product of n and the constant.

Example:
 4

RULE 3. The summation of the difference of a variable and a constant is equal to the summation of the
variable minus the product of n and the constant.

Example:

RULE 4. The summation of the products of a variable and a constant is equal to the product of the constant
and the summation of the variable.

Example:

EXERCISES:
A. Which of the following variables are qualitative and which are quantitative? Among the quantitative
variables, which are discrete and which are continuous?
1. Educational attainment
2. Brand of toothpaste
3. ID number
4. Student number
5. IQ score
6. Height of a building
7. Number of years in school
8. Political Affiliation
9. Rank of teachers
10. Speed of cars
11. Place of residence
12. Weight of package
B. Categorize each of the following as either nominal, ordinal, interval or ratio measurement:
1. first place, second place, third place in a lantern contest
2. metric measurement of distance
3. house numbers
4. zip code numbers
 5
5. physics test scores
6. number of live births in a given month
7. socio-metric status: 1-high, 2 – average, 3- low
8. religious affiliation: 1- Catholic, 2 – non-Catholics
C. Express the following using the summation notation:
1.
2.

3.

4.
5.
D. If , evaluate the following:

1. 4.

2. 5.

3.