Cengage logo

eResource Registration

Why Is This Important?

1 of 17

next >

You are going to generate lots of statistics as a researcher. There are basically two types of statistics – descriptive and inferential.

We learned about descriptive statistics in Workshop #1 when we reviewed measures of central tendency and variability.

We will now learn about inferential statistics and the related concepts of sampling distribution and the standard error of the mean.

Descriptive statistics describe the data - like the mean and SD.

Inferential statistics enable you to make decisions about your data and draw inferences such as:

  • Is one group mean different from the population mean?
  • Are two group means different from each other?
  • Is one set of frequencies different from another set of frequencies?
  • Does one variable predict another variable?

1 of 17

next >