Descriptive Statistics
The purpose of a descriptive statistic is to summarize data. Descriptive
stats only make statements about the set of data from which they were
calculated; they never go beyond the data you have. In other words, even
though a sample is always taken from a population, and even though our
long-term goal is usually to make a statement about the population (and not
just the sample), descriptive stats only make statements about the sample.
Frequency Distribution
The frequency (f) of a particular value is the number of times the
value occurs in the data. The distribution of a variable is the pattern
of frequencies, meaning the set of all possible values and the
frequencies associated with these values. Frequency distributions are
portrayed as frequency tables or charts.
Frequency distributions can show either the actual number of
observations falling in each range or the percentage of observations.
In the latter instance, the distribution is called a relative frequency
distribution.
Frequency distribution tables can be used for both categorical and
numeric variables. Continuous variables should only be used with
class intervals, which will be explained shortly.
Percentage Distribution
A percentage frequency distribution, in general, is a display of data that
indicates the percentage of observations for each data point or grouping of
data points. It is a commonly used method for expressing the relative
frequency of survey responses and other data. The percentage frequency
distributions are often displayed as bar graphs, pie charts, or tables.
Measures of Central Tendency and Other Commonly Used Descriptive
Statistics
The mean, median, and the mode are all measures of central tendency.
They attempt to describe what the typical data point might look like. In
essence, they are all different forms of 'the average.' When writing
statistics, you never want to say 'average' because it is difficult, if not
impossible, for your reader to understand if you are referring to the
mean, the median, or the mode.
MEAN
The mean is the most common form of central tendency, and is what
most people usually are referring to when the say average. It is simply
the total sum of all the numbers in a data set, divided by the total number
of data points. For example, the following data set has a mean of 4: {-1,
0, 1, 16}. That is, 16 divided by 4 is 4. If there isn't a good reason to use
one of the other forms of central tendency, then you should use the
mean to describe the central tendency.
MEDIAN
The median is simply the middle value of a data set. In order to calculate
the median, all values in the data set need to be ordered, from either
highest to lowest, or vice versa. If there are an odd number of values in a
data set, then the median is easy to calculate. If there is an even number
of values in a data set, then the calculation becomes more difficult.
Statisticians still debate how to properly calculate a median when there
is an even number of values, but for most purposes, it is appropriate to
simply take the mean of the two middle values. The median is useful
when describing data sets that are skewed or have extreme values.
Incomes of baseballs players, for example, are commonly reported using
a median because a small minority of baseball players makes a lot of
money, while most players make more modest amounts. The median is
less influenced by extreme scores than the mean.
{-2, 1, 3, 10, 500, 1000}
Here the median is 6.5: [(3+10)/2]
{30, 30, 50, 50, 60}
Here the median is 50.
MODE
The mode is the most commonly occurring number in the data set. The
mode is best used when you want to indicate the most common
response or item in a data set. For example, if you wanted to predict the
score of the next football game, you may want to know what the most
common score is for the visiting team, but having an average score of
15.3 won't help you if it is impossible to score 15.3 points. Likewise, a
median score may not be very informative either, if you are interested in
what score is most likely.
{1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 10, 10}
Here the mode is 10.
STANDARD DEVIATION
The standard deviation is a measure of variability (it is not a measure of
central tendency). Conceptually it is best viewed as the 'average
distance that individual data points are from the mean.' Data sets that
are highly clustered around the mean have lower standard deviations
than data sets that are spread out.
For example, the first data set would have a higher standard deviation
than the second data set:
{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}
Standard Deviation = 2.58
{4,4,4,5,5,5,6,6,6}
Standard Deviation = 0.82
Notice that both groups have the same mean (5) and median (also 5),
but the two groups contain different numbers and are organized much
differently. This organization of a data set is often referred to as a
distribution. Because the two data sets above have the same mean and
median, but different standard deviation, we know that they also have
different distributions. Understanding the distribution of a data set helps
us understand how the data behave.
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