What is Inferential Statistics?

Inferential statistics enables one to make descriptions of data and draw

inferences and conclusions from the respective data. Through inferential
statistics, an individual can conclude what a population may think or how it’s
been affected by taking sample data.

Inferential statistics is mainly used to derive estimates about a large group (or
population) and draw conclusions on the data based on hypotheses testing
methods.

Inferential statistics uses sample data because it is more cost-effective and less
tedious than collecting data from an entire population. It allows one to come
to reasonable assumptions about the larger population based on a sample’s
characteristics. Sampling methods need to be unbiased and random for
statistical conclusions and inferHypothesis Testing

Hypothesis testing makes use of inferential statistics and is used to analyze

relationships between variables and make population comparisons through
the use of sample data. The steps for hypothesis testing include having a
stated research hypothesis (null and alternate), data collection per the
hypothesis test requirements, data analysis through the appropriate test, a
decision to reject or accept the null hypothesis, and finally, a presentation and
discussion of findings made.

Hypothesis testing falls under the “statistical tests” category. Statistical tests
account for sampling errors and can either be parametric (includes
assumptions made regarding population distribution parameters) or non-
parametric (does not include assumptions made regarding population
distribution parameters).

Parametric tests tend to be more trusted and reliable because they enable the
detection of potential effects. Parametric tests assume that the population
from which sample data is derived is normally distributed. The sample size
provides an adequate representation of the population from which it was
derived. The groups, variances, and measures of spread are comparable.

ences to be validated.

Summary

 Inferential statistics enables one to make descriptions of data and

draw inferences and conclusions from the respective data. 
  Inferential statistics uses sample data because it is more cost-
effective and less tedious than collecting data from an entire
population.
 It allows one to come to reasonable assumptions about the larger
population based on a sample’s characteristics.

Hypothesis testing is a form of inferential statistics that allows us to draw conclusions about an
entire population based on a representative sample. You gain tremendous benefits by working
with a sample. In most cases, it is simply impossible to observe the entire population to
understand its properties. The only alternative is to collect a random sample and then use
statistics to analyze it.

Use a hypothesis test to help determine whether the differences between these means are random
error or a real effect.

Hypothesis Testing
Hypothesis testing is a statistical analysis that uses sample data to assess two mutually
exclusive theories about the properties of a population. Statisticians call these theories
the null hypothesis and the alternative hypothesis. A hypothesis test assesses your
sample statistic and factors in an estimate of the sample error to determine which
hypothesis the data support.

Hypothesis testing is a formal procedure for investigating our ideas about the world
using statistics. It is most often used by scientists to test specific predictions, called
hypotheses, that arise from theories.

There are 5 main steps in hypothesis testing:

1. State your research hypothesis as a null (Ho) and alternate (Ha) hypothesis.

2. Collect data in a way designed to test the hypothesis.
3. Perform an appropriate statistical test.
4. Decide whether the null hypothesis is supported or refuted.
5. Present the findings in your results and discussion section.

Though the specific details might vary, the procedure you will use when testing a
hypothesis will always follow some version of these steps.

Table of contents

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Step 1: State your null and alternate hypothesis
After developing your initial research hypothesis (the prediction that you want to
investigate), it is important to restate it as a null (H o) and alternate (Ha) hypothesis so
that you can test it mathematically.

The alternate hypothesis is usually your initial hypothesis that predicts a relationship

between variables. The null hypothesis is a prediction of no relationship between the
variables you are interested in.

You want to test whether there is a relationship between gender and height. Based on
your knowledge of human physiology, you formulate a hypothesis that men are, on
average, taller than women. To test this hypothesis, you restate it as:

Ho: Men are, on average, not taller than women.

Ha: Men are, on average, taller than women.

Step 2: Collect data

For a statistical test to be valid, it is important to perform sampling and collect data in a
way that is designed to test your hypothesis. If your data are not representative, then
you cannot make statistical inferences about the population you are interested in.

To test differences in average height between men and women, your sample should
have an equal proportion of men and women, and cover a variety of socio-economic
classes and any other variables that might influence average height.

You should also consider your scope (Worldwide? For one country?) A potential data
source in this case might be census data, since it includes data from a variety of regions
and social classes and is available for many countries around the world.

tep 3: Perform a statistical test

There are a variety of statistical tests available, but they are all based on the
comparison of within-group variance (how spread out the data is within a category)
versus between-group variance (how different the categories are from one another).

If the between-group variance is large enough that there is little or no overlap between

groups, then your statistical test will reflect that by showing a low p-value. This means it
is unlikely that the differences between these groups came about by chance.

Alternatively, if there is high within-group variance and low between-group variance,

then your statistical test will reflect that with a high p-value. This means it is likely that
any difference you measure between groups is due to chance.

Your choice of statistical test will be based on the type of data you collected.

Based on the type of data you collected, you perform a one-tailed t-test to test whether
men are in fact taller than women. This test gives you:

 an estimate of the difference in average height between the two groups.

 a p-value showing how likely you are to see this difference if the null hypothesis of no
difference is true.

Your t-test shows an average height of 175.4 cm for men and an average height of
161.7 cm for women, with an estimate of the true difference ranging from 10.2cm to
infinity. The p-value is 0.002.

Step 4: Decide whether the null hypothesis is

supported or refuted
Based on the outcome of your statistical test, you will have to decide whether your null
hypothesis is supported or refuted.

In most cases you will use the p-value generated by your statistical test to guide your
decision. And in most cases, your cutoff for refuting the null hypothesis will be 0.05 –
that is, when there is a less than 5% chance that you would see these results if the null
hypothesis were true.

In your analysis of the difference in average height between men and women, you find that
the p-value of 0.002 is below your cutoff of 0.05, so you decide to reject your null hypothesis of
no difference.

Step 5: Present your findings

The results of hypothesis testing will be presented in the results and discussion sections
of your research paper.

In the results section you should give a brief summary of the data and a summary of the
results of your statistical test (for example, the estimated difference between group
means and associated p-value). In the discussion, you can discuss whether your initial
hypothesis was supported or refuted.

In the formal language of hypothesis testing, we talk about refuting or accepting the null
hypothesis. You will probably be asked to do this in your statistics assignments.

Stating results in a statistics assignment

In our comparison of mean height between men and women we found an average
difference of 14.3cm and a p-value of 0.002; therefore, we can refute the null hypothesis
that men are not taller than women and conclude that there is likely a difference in
height between men and women.
However, when presenting research results in academic papers we rarely talk this way.
Instead, we go back to our alternate hypothesis (in this case, the hypothesis that men
are on average taller than women) and state whether the result of our test was
consistent or inconsistent with the alternate hypothesis.

If your null hypothesis was refuted, this result is interpreted as being consistent with
your alternate hypothesis.

Stating results in a research paper

We found a difference in average height between men and women of 14.3cm, with a p-
value of 0.002, consistent with our hypothesis that there is a difference in height
between men and women.
These are superficial differences; you can see that they mean the same thing.

You might notice that we don’t say that we accept or reject the alternate
hypothesis. This is because hypothesis testing is not designed to prove or disprove
anything. It is only designed to test whether a pattern we measure could have arisen by
chance.

If we reject the null hypothesis based on our research (i.e., we find that it is unlikely that
the pattern arose by chance), then we can say our test lends support to our
hypothesis. But if the pattern does not pass our decision rule, meaning that it could
have arisen by chance, then we say the test is inconsistent with our hypothesis.