Statistics in psychology

Statistics plays an important role in Psychology by providing methods to collect, organize, analyze, and interpret data. It helps psychologists to test their hypotheses, make predictions, and draw conclusions about human behavior and mental processes based on empirical evidence.

Descriptive statistics are used to summarize and describe the characteristics of a sample or population, such as measures of central tendency, variability, and correlation. Inferential statistics, on the other hand, are used to make predictions and draw conclusions about a population based on a sample of data.

Frequency distribution is a method of organizing data into categories and showing the number of observations in each category. It involves tabulating raw scores or data into a table that displays the number or proportion of scores in each category or interval.

Measures of Central Tendency in statistics refer to the ways of summarizing a set of data into a single value that represents the center or typical value of the data. It includes three measures: mean, median, and mode.

Outliers can significantly affect the mean as it takes into account all the values in the dataset. A single outlier can shift the mean significantly towards its direction.

The median is the most suitable measure of central tendency for skewed data because it is not influenced by extreme values and represents the value at the midpoint of the data.

The mode is the most frequent observation or value in a dataset.

The range is affected by extreme scores as it is the difference between the highest and the lowest score in a dataset. A single extreme score can significantly affect the range.

The standard deviation is the most commonly used measure of variability in inferential statistics because it is sensitive to variations within a dataset and can help estimate the parameters of a population.

The range is computed as the difference between the highest and the lowest score in a dataset.

The NPC is a graphical representation of the probability distribution of a set of scores, displaying the frequency of scores in the form of a curve.

The NPC displays the central tendency and variability of a dataset and can show deviations from normal distribution, but it does not include information about the sample size.

The NPC can show deviations from normal distribution, which can be quantified using measures of deviation such as the standard deviation.

Correlation is a statistical measure that describes the relationship between two variables, indicating how closely they are related to each other.

Positive correlation refers to a relationship between two variables where they both increase or decrease together, while negative correlation refers to a relationship where one variable increases as the other decreases.

Correlation can be used to establish a relationship between two variables, which can then be used to infer causation between them.