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Descriptive Statistics and Inferential StatisticsDescriptive Statistics and Inferential StatisticsEvery student of statistics should know about the different branches of statistics to correctly understand statistics from a more holistic point of view. Often, the kind of job or work one is involved in hides the other aspects of statistics, but it is very important to know the overall idea behind statistical analysis to fully appreciate its importance and beauty. Discover 17 more articles on this topic The two main branches of statistics are descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Both of these are employed in scientific analysis of data and both are equally important for the student of statistics. Descriptive StatisticsDescriptive statistics deals with the presentation and collection of data. This is usually the first part of a statistical analysis. It is usually not as simple as it sounds, and the statistician needs to be aware of designing experiments, choosing the right focus group and avoid biases that are so easy to creep into the experiment. Different areas of study require different kinds of analysis using descriptive statistics. For example, a physicist studying turbulence in the laboratory needs the average quantities that vary over small intervals of time. The nature of this problem requires that physical quantities be averaged from a host of data collected through the experiment. Inferential StatisticsInferential statistics, as the name suggests, involves drawing the right conclusions from the statistical analysis that has been performed using descriptive statistics. In the end, it is the inferences that make studies important and this aspect is dealt with in inferential statistics. Most predictions of the future and generalizations about a population by studying a smaller sample come under the purview of inferential statistics. Most social sciences experiments deal with studying a small sample population that helps determine how the population in general behaves. By designing the right experiment, the researcher is able to draw conclusions relevant to his study. While drawing conclusions, one needs to be very careful so as not to draw the wrong or biased conclusions. Even though this appears like a science, there are ways in which one can manipulate studies and results through various means. For example, data dredging is increasingly becoming a problem as computers hold loads of information and it is easy, either intentionally or unintentionally, to use the wrong inferential methods. Both descriptive and inferential statistics go hand in hand and one cannot exist without the other. Good scientific methodology needs to be followed in both these steps of statistical analysis and both these branches of statistics are equally important for a researcher. You Are Allowed To Copy The TextThe text in this article is licensed under the Creative Commons-License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). This means you're free to copy, share and adapt any parts (or all) of the text in the article, as long as you give appropriate credit and provide a link/reference to this page. That is it. You don't need our permission to copy the article; just include a link/reference back to this page. You can use it freely (with some kind of link), and we're also okay with people reprinting in publications like books, blogs, newsletters, course-material, papers, wikipedia and presentations (with clear attribution). Want to stay up to date? Follow us!Statistics that describe or summarize a sample’s characteristics, such as its mean, standard deviation, or frequency, are called descriptive statistics. A data sample can be analyzed inferentially to determine the properties of its elements. Watch what type of stats consists of organizing and summarizing information collected video[starbox] What type of statistics is used to organize and describe the characteristics of a collection of data quizlet?Define descriptive statistics. used to organize and describe the characteristics of a collection of data.
What statistics are used to organize and present a set of data?Descriptive statistics are used to organize or summarize a set of data. Examples include percentages, measures of central tendency (mean, median, mode), measures of dispersion (range, standard deviation, variance), and correlation coefficients.
Which of the following statistical methods used to describe the characteristics of a sample?Inferential statistics use the characteristics in a sample to infer what the unknown parameters are in a given population. In this way, as shown in Figure 1.2, a sample is selected from a population to learn more about the characteristics in the population of interest.
What type of statistics involves collecting organizing and summarizing data?Descriptive statistics is the branch of statistics that involves the organization, summarization and display of data.
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