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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Use frequency tables and histograms to display and interpret the distribution of a variable.
- Compute and interpret the mean, median, and mode of a distribution and identify situations in which the mean, median, or mode is the most appropriate measure of central tendency.
- Compute and interpret the range and standard deviation of a distribution.
- Compute and interpret percentile ranks and z scores.
Descriptive statistics refers to a set of techniques for summarizing and displaying data. Let us assume here that the data are quantitative and consist of scores on one or more variables for each of several study participants. Although in most cases the primary research question will be about one or more statistical relationships between variables, it is also important to describe each variable individually. For this reason, we begin by looking at some of the most common techniques for describing single variables.
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