Statistics Term Paper

Total Length: 1450 words ( 5 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 0

Page 1 of 5



Statistics and Their Importance to Research Investigation. Although all research activities do not require the use of statistical data analysis when an investigator wants to report upon the differences, effects and/or relationships between and amongst groups or phenomena (i.e. variables) there must a concerted effort to measure the phenomenon with as much precision and accuracy as possible (Mendenhall & Ramey, 1973). This is, of course, accomplished through the use of statistics. Situations wherein statistical processes are not required are generally reserved for qualitative types of research such as historical, philosophical, and/or cultural trend studies.

One of man's greatest fears is that of the power of numbers. For most people numbers are nothing more than a hodgepodge of digits that are bewildering and often meaningless. As a result individuals often prefer to judge events, occurrences, phenomena, and situations from a traditionalist point-of-view wherein reason, conclusion, and inference are made on the basis of past acceptance rather than on a best practices policy. Justification for historical acceptance is usually based upon a fear of numbers and a lack of willingness to extract meaningful information from them. For those accepting of alternatives, statistical tools have been devised wherein it is possible to extract meaningful information from data and interpret whatever the data holds as its' secret (Freund, 1967). However, as test data often comes to the researcher investigator in unintelligible form, as test numbers by themselves are, the researcher must be knowledgeable enough to be able to choose the most reliable and efficient best-fit practice statistical procedure. If the appropriate procedure is not chosen the researcher will then wander through a labyrinth of unimportant data and embark upon an odyssey of failure (Ohlson 1998).

Before one enters the world of statistics one must put away all their fears and illusions about statistics. The stimuli that incite mathematical panic are largely illusory. Many of the formulas used by scientists in their statistical computations present an awesome, if not terrifying, appearance, but beneath the strange symbols lurks nothing more foreboding than the simple arithmetic we all mastered in school. The uses one will make of best practice statistics require no differential equations, no calculus, and no analytic geometry.
The sometimes-horrifying mathematical manipulations that fill one with ghastly anxiety as they approach a lesson in statistics ultimately reveal themselves as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. By becoming familiar with the statistical techniques one might possibly develop a benevolent tolerance for the tedium and possibly even a reverent respect for the almost magical things statistics allows one to do with mere numbers.

Correct Statistical Processes. Statistics is a branch of scientific mathematical methodology. It deals with the collection, classification, description, and interpretation of measurement data obtained through the testing process and observation. In consumer product research the essential purpose is to describe and draw inferences about the numerical properties of product populations as well as to compare testing procedures (Senter, 1969). In everyday language the term population is used to refer to groups or aggregates of consumer product. The consumer product researcher's concern is with properties which are descriptive of a group or aggregation itself rather than with properties of particular single product member. As consumer product researchers are primarily concerned with group issues, rather than single product unit matters, it is paramount that a complete familiarization and understanding be had as to the proper use of statistical processes. The investigator must discern when to use a particular statistical process for comparing a single unit to a group opposed to comparing two (2) or more groups to each other, or comparing a group to a wider population. Should the wrong statistical process be employed there will result contaminated statistical values and wrongful conclusions will be drawn. As a consequence of the use of improper statistical processes unsafe consumer product may be accepted; client liability will increase; and corporate profit will diminish.

The primary purpose of statistical processes is to make order out of chaos. By properly applying selected statistical processes to measurement data the consumer product engineer can determine whether or not a manufactured product is safe for distribution. However, product safety is simply a stratagem if the wrong statistical procedure is applied to measurement data. Once the researcher has collected the necessary measurement data it is then time to apply an appropriate statistical tool that will confirm or deny.....

Show More ⇣


     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


Related Essays

Multivariate Statistics Compare and Contrast

are some fields and realms where much more intricate mathematics are involved and statistics would be a common example of such a complex method. This brief report shall specifically cover the use of multivariate statistics. Three of the more common manifestations of multivariate statistics are factor analysis, cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling. While making things overly complex from a numbers standpoint is usually not wise, there are situations where more robust and complex analysis is necessary or advantageous. Compare & Contrast The first multivariate method that shall be discussed is factor analysis. Factor analysis is a technique that is used to reduce a… Continue Reading...

Online Statistics and Probability Theory

Online Statistics Part 1 Probability theory is an aspect that is applicable on an everyday basis. A particular situation in which I may use probability theory to reach a decision in public management is to investigate equal employment prospects within the organization. For instance, there is a need to assess whether the organization hires women in the same manner as men, especially in positions that do not necessitate certain gender traits. Therefore, in this case, probability theory can be beneficial in probability theory, specifically Bernoulli process. That is, a process can… Continue Reading...

Differences Between Inferential and Descriptive Statistics

years include more demand tech-savvy healthcare workers and those who can cater for the aging population. Inferential versus Descriptive Statistics Inferential and descriptive statistics are the two areas of statistics employed in analyzing data, particularly in studies conducted on groups of people. However, its critical for researchers to understand the differences between inferential and descriptive statistics. Understanding statistical techniques is essential to properly design a study and accurately assess studies conducted by others. Descriptive statistics basically focus on describing or summarizing data whereas inferential statistics use techniques that focus on draw conclusions regarding population from a study sample (Byrne, 2007). When using descriptive statistics, the data is described… Continue Reading...

Criminology in America

the educational programs in each and then discuss the crime statistics within each area. What conclusions can you draw regarding education and its effect on crime in the area? Several explanations of this have been thoroughly elaborated and they are based on the traditions popular in poverty-stricken regions, the unequal distribution of educational infrastructure, the standard of education in the less developed regions, the opinions of poor households and several others. There has been conclusive evidence showing that education truly boosts the development and advancement experienced by a region or community. Educational regulators and workers find themselves in a dilemma… Continue Reading...

Careers in Criminal Justice and Prospects

A cursory glance at job market statistics offers a grim picture, leading many to pessimistic conclusions. The United States Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics points out that increasing numbers of young people are graduating from college and entering the job market now, leading to increased competition in many job sectors (1). Likewise, rates of unemployment have been at near-record lows, especially for young men (United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics 1). Baeurlein also points out the problem that many college students have with debt accumulation from student loans, making it difficult… Continue Reading...

Social Sciences and Its Statistical Package

software? SPSS, akin to several other tools like Stata and SAS, offers the simple know-how and ability to undertake descriptive statistics, regression, and correlations. Through different add-ons, SPSS can facilitate the performance of more advanced research needs such as multivariate analysis, conjoint analysis in addition to neural networks. The software package has the advantage in that it provide the expediency in automating numerous tasks like cleansing and organizing data, together with generating charts together with other kinds of output. The researcher is also able to automate different tasks like data coding, analysis of missing values and import or export functions. Another major benefit of SPSS takes into account its expansive… Continue Reading...

Statistical Test for Significantly Different Sample Means

different number of widgets compared to the night shift workers, an independent sample t-test was conducted. From the group statistics table, the mean number of widgets produced in the day shift is 45.20 while for the day shift is 22.07. The deference between these two values is 23.13. No violation are noted in evaluation of the Levenes Test (P=0.881). The result indicates 0.022 in the 2 tailed significance level where it is less than 0.05 (alpha). This result shows that the difference between the mean of the two groups’ is a significantly different statistically. The test leads to the conclusion that the mean difference between widgets produced by employees… Continue Reading...

Christian World View Ethical Dilemmas of Pornography

Nonetheless, TJ is in a dilemma. He recently came across some startling statistics indicating that pornography is harmful to the society as it contributes to human trafficking. TJ is also aware of the possible consequences of pornography consumption on himself – addiction. He now somewhat feels that his freedom to watch pornography is under threat. TJ, however, strongly believes that his act, which he always does behind closed doors, has no effect on others. TJ’s dilemma can be resolved with two perspectives: the Christian worldview and the atheistic worldview. The two perspectives offer conflicting solutions to the dilemma. On one hand, the… Continue Reading...

Career Options in Accounting

accounting, managerial accounting, internal auditing, tax accounting, financial analysis, payroll clerking, and forensic accounting (Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS], 2015; American Institute of Certified Public Accountants [AICPA], 2017). Though related, each of these careers is unique in its own way. A financial accountant is involved in making and receiving payments, recording transactions, and preparing financial statements. Closely related to financial accounting is managerial accounting. While a financial accountant prepares financial statements for use by outsiders such as shareholders and lenders, a managerial accountant prepares financial records for internal use. The work of a payroll clerk is to ensure employees are paid accurately and on time. The clerk… Continue Reading...

Apple Expansion into Myanmar

from a corporate office in, say, Bangkok or Singapore, using just a satellite office in Yangon. The current economic statistics for Myanmar are as follows, gathered from the CIA World Factbook. The country\'s overall GDP is $330.9 billion, ranked 54th in the world. The GDP per capita, however, is $6300, which ranks 163rd in the world. However, the GDP growth rates are as follows: Year 2015 2016 2017 GDP 290.8 308.6 330.9 GDP Growth Rate 7 6.1 7.2 Myanmar has the 7th-fastest growing economy in the world. There is little doubt that the vast majority of the country remains poor, with 70% of the workforce engaged in agriculture, but… Continue Reading...

Operational Effectiveness in Healthcare Organizations

in the establishment and attained considerable knowledge and competence. What information did you find about the hospital? There are statistics and information obtained about Mount Sinai Hospital with regards to its performance measures. To begin with, the healthcare facility has a performance rate of 81.72% with respect to getting timely care, appointments, and information. Another important measure is that the organization has a performance rate of 93.22% with respect to the patient's rating of doctors rendering care. In addition, accessibility to specialists as a performance measure was ranked as at 83.64%. A poor performance for Mount Sinai Hospital encompassed Health promotion and Education, which was set at 54.69 (Mount… Continue Reading...

Healthcare and Fitness Research

Statistics and Research Method for Business Decisions Potential of Fitness Industry Fitness industries today are increasingly receiving clients from all sorts of demographics and ages. Human fitness is turning out to be an asset that people are taking every effort to ensure it is preserved and protected at all times. The fitness standards are essential because they are multifaceted but appear to converge towards the need for a long healthy life characterized by productivity and reduced vulnerabilities. Fitness is a concern for almost every individual in the world today and… Continue Reading...

Illegal Immigration Essay

arguments for illegal immigration, 4) arguments against illegal immigration, and 5) illegal immigration statistics.  Finally, this article provides a conclusion and a list of possible resources you could use for more information. Related Topics Build the Wall If MAGA did anything, it made the catchphrase “build the wall” into one of the most popular talking points when it comes to the subject of illegal immigration.  Israel has a wall; Vatican City has a wall.  China is known for its Great Wall.  Even Germany had a wall at one point.  Today, however, “building a wall” between Mexico and the U.S. is consider one of… Continue Reading...

Quantitative and Qualitative Data Analysis Essay

meeting last month. The result of the "Pearson Chi-Square" shows that ?(1) = 0.206, p = .650 revealing that there a significant difference between the proportion of males and females who attended the firms meeting last month. Following is the analysis of employee data: 1. What is the age distribution of the workforce? (Use, for example, Histogram) FREQUENCIES VARIABLES=age /STATISTICS=RANGE MEAN /HISTOGRAM /ORDER=ANALYSIS. Frequencies [DataSet1] C:UsersucerDesktop188375_jss.sav Statistics Age N Valid 69 Missing 1 Mean 39,19 Range 45 Age Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Valid 18 2 2,9 2,9 2,9 19 2 2,9 2,9 5,8 21 2 2,9 2,9 8,7 23 1 1,4 1,4 10,1 26 3 4,3 4,3 14,5 27 2 2,9 2,9 17,4 28 3 4,3 4,3 21,7 29 6 8,6 8,7 30,4 30 1 1,4 1,4 31,9 31 4 5,7 5,8 37,7 32 2 2,9 2,9 40,6 33 1 1,4 1,4 42,0 34 1 1,4 1,4… Continue Reading...

Qualitative and Quantitative Data Analysis

χ(1) = 0.206, p = .650 revealing that "there a significant difference between the proportion of males and females who attended the firm's meeting last month." Following is the analysis of employee data: 1. "What is the age distribution of the workforce? (Use, for example, Histogram)" FREQUENCIES VARIABLES=age /STATISTICS=RANGE MEAN /HISTOGRAM /ORDER=ANALYSIS. Frequencies [DataSet1] C:UsersucerDesktop188375_jss.sav Statistics Age N Valid 69 Missing 1 Mean 39,19 Range 45 Age Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Valid 18 2 2,9 2,9 2,9 19 2 2,9 2,9 5,8 21 2 2,9 2,9 8,7 23 1 1,4 1,4 10,1 26 3 4,3 4,3 14,5 27 2 2,9 2,9 17,4 28 3 4,3 4,3 21,7 29 6 8,6 8,7 30,4 30 1 1,4 1,4 31,9 31 4 5,7 5,8 37,7 32 2 2,9 2,9 40,6 33 1 1,4 1,4 42,0 34 1 1,4 1,4… Continue Reading...

Teenage Health Vulnerabilities with Substance Abuse United States

process regarding the nature of the relationship between the variables. The analysis will particularly entail descriptive statistics as well as regression, correlation, and ANOVA analysis. Descriptive statistics will be used to present demographic data and provide measures of central tendency such as averages and median, while the statistical analyses will be important for testing the relationship between the dependent and independent variables (Draper and Smith, 2014). One-way ANOVA is delineated as an approach that can be utilized for the comparison of means of two or more samples. There are different necessitated conditions for a one-way ANOVA. First of all, the variances of populations are the same.… Continue Reading...

Working with Common Core

Core Standard CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSS.IC.A.1: “Understand statistics as a process for making inferences about population parameters based on a random sample from that population” (Common Core, 2019). The Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice states that “mathematically proficient students start by explaining to themselves the meaning of a problem and looking for entry points to its solution. They analyze givens, constraints, relationships, and goals. They make conjectures about the form and meaning of the solution and plan a solution pathway rather than simply jumping into a solution attempt” (Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice, 2019). This… Continue Reading...

Why Vaccinations Should Be Compulsory

killed tens of thousands of Americans within living memory (Five important reasons to vaccinate your child, 2018). Statistics: According to the U.S. government, during the first half of the 20th century, polio represented one of the most feared diseases in the country, accounting for tens of thousands of cases of paralysis and accelerated death (Five reasons to vaccinate your child, 2018). Result: Since the introduction of vaccinations, however, there have been no reports of polio in the United States in recent years (Five important reasons to vaccinate your child, 2018). In some other countries such as Pakistan, the picture is not so bright and the people in… Continue Reading...

Database Professionals Employment Trends in US and Monaco

management and processing of data. According to the (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), DBA professionals are ranked amongst the top 10 professions for the past several years. According to a survey carried out by (U.S. News & World Report), a majority of the current database professionals intend to retire in the next ten years since they are over 55 years. This means that there will be a need to replace these professionals and with the shortages in the industry, there is going to be better pay offers and working conditions. The trends in Monaco are not so different than those in the… Continue Reading...

How Race and Ethnicity Affect Police Brutality

While no one is immune from police brutality, statistics show that African-Americans are far more likely to be the victims of police brutality than are whites. As Lopez notes, “Black people accounted for 31 percent of police killing victims in 2012, even though they made up just 13 percent of the US population.” Moreover, of the people killed by police who were not attacking, 39% were black (Lopez). These statistics have not improved over time. Between 2015 and 2016, there were 1,146 victims of police violence and nearly 40% of those victims were either African-American or Hispanic, according… Continue Reading...

sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Statistics" (2005, February 19) Retrieved May 21, 2025, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/statistics-62110

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Statistics" 19 February 2005. Web.21 May. 2025. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/statistics-62110>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Statistics", 19 February 2005, Accessed.21 May. 2025,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/statistics-62110