STATISTICS

Statistics is a scientific body of knowledge that deals with the collection of data, organization or presentation of
data, analysis and interpretation of data.

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS vs INFERENTIAL STATISTICS

Descriptive Statisticsis a statistical procedure concerned with describing the characteristics and procedures of a
group of persons, places or things.
Descriptive Statistics organizes the presentation, description, and interpretation of data gathered.
Descriptive Statistics can answer questions such as:

1. How many students are interested to take statistics online?

2. What are the highest and lowest scores obtained by applicants in a test?

Inferential Statistics is a statistical procedure used to draw inferences for the population on the basis of the
information obtained from the sample.
Inferential Statistics can answer questions like:

1. Is there a significant correlation between educational attainment and job performance rating?
2. Is there a significant difference in the academic performance of male and female students in Statistics?

POPULATION vs SAMPLE, PARAMETERvs STATISTIC

Population refers to a large collection of objects, places or things.

Parameter is any numerical value which describes a population.
Example: There are 300 students enrolled in Criminology.
N= 300 is a parameter

Sample is a small portion or part of a population. It is also a representative of the population in a research study.
Statistic is any numerical value which describes a sample.
Example: Of the 300 students enrolled in Criminology, 268 are Male.
n= 268 is a statistic.
DATA
QUANTITATIVE DATA vs QUALITATIVE DATA

Data are facts, or a set of information gathered or under study.

Quantitative Data are numerical in nature and therefore meaningful arithmetic can be done.
Example: age
Qualitative Data are attributes which cannot be subjected to meaningful arithmetic.
Example: gender

DISCRETE DATA vs CONTINUOUS DATA

Discrete Data assume exact values only and can be obtained by counting.
Example: number of policemen assigned in a certain area

Continuous Data assume infinite values within a specified interval and can be obtained by measurement.
Example: height

QUALITATIVE DATA vs QUANTITATIVE DATA

Qualitative Data can be separated into different categories that are distinguished by some numerical
characteristic.

Quantitative Data consist of numbers representing counts or measurements.

CONSTANT vs VARIABLE

Constant is a characteristic or property of population or sample which makes the members similar to each other.
Example: Gender in a class of all girls is constant

Variable is a characteristic or property of a population or sample which makes the members different from each
other.
Example: gender in a coed school is variable

DEPENDENT VARIABLE vs INDEPENDENT VARIABLE

Dependent Variable.A variable which is affected by another variable.

Example: performance of duty

Independent Variable.A variable which affects the dependent variable.

Example: age

LEVELS OF MEASUREMENT

1. Nominal. It is characterized by data that consist of names, labels, or categories only.

Example: gender, religion, civil status
2. Ordinal. Involves data that may be arranged in some order.
Example: employee rank
3. Interval. It is like the ordinal level, with the additional property that meaningful amounts of differences
between data can be determined. However, there are no inherent (natural) zero starting point.
Example: temperature
4. Ratio. It is the interval modified to include the inherent zero starting point.
Examples: weight, length of movies, distance traveled by cars.

DETERMINING THE SAMPLE SIZE

N
Slovin’s formula n=
1+ N e 2
Where: n= sample size
N= population size
e= margin of error
*e=is a value which quantifies possible sampling errors.
* sampling error means that the results in the sample differ from those of the target population.
( The more samples you have, the better result you will get).
Example:

1. N= 10,000; e= 1%

SAMPLING TECHNIQUES

Sampling is the process of selecting samples from a given population

Types of Sampling Techniques

I. PROBABILITY SAMPLING. Each individual is chosen entirely by chance and each member of
population has known or equal chance of being included in the sample.

Types of Probability Sampling

1. Simple Random Sampling. Samples are chosen at random with members of the population having a
known chance of being included in the sample.
a. Lottery Method
b. Generation of Random Numbers
 2. Systematic Sampling. Samples are randomly chosen following certain rules set by the researchers.
This involves choosing the kth member of the population.
Example: Choosing every 5th element from the list of samples.
3. Stratified Random Sampling. The population is subdivided into subgroups, called strata, where
samples are being selected.

Example: a survey to find out if families living in a certain municipality are in favor of Reproductive Health Bill will
be conducted. To ensure that all income groups are represented, respondents will be divided into high income,
middle income, and low income.
Strata No. of Families
Class A 1,000
Class B 2,500
Class C 1,500

4. Cluster Sampling. The population area is divided into sections, a few of those sections are randomly
selected, then all the members of the selected sections are samples.

II. NON-PROBABILITY SAMPLING. Each member of the population does not have a known chance of
being included in the sample.
Types of Non-probability Sampling
1. Convenience Sampling. A process of picking out elements to constitute a sample in the most
convenient and fastest way.
Example: gathering of data through the use of telephone
2. Quota Sampling. Specified number of elements of certain types are included in the sample.
Example: The number of viewers in a TV show.
3. Purposive Sampling. The respondents are chosen on the basis of their knowledge of the
information desired.
Example: If a research is to be conducted on the history of a place, only the old people are to be
included as respondents.

DATA-GATHERING TECHNIQUES

1. The Direct or Interview Method. The researcher has a direct contact with the respondents
Advantage:
- A more accurate response, since clarification can be made when the questions raised are vague.
Disadvantage:
- costly and time- consuming
2. The Indirect or Questionnaire Method. The researcher distributes the questionnaire to the respondents
personally or through mail or e- mail.
Advantage: saves time and money
Disadvantage: problem on retrieval

The direct or questionnaire method is what you will use in your thesis. In some instances, the authenticity
of the data gathered through the indirect or questionnaire method depends on the questionnaire.
Therefore, questions must be carefully worded, free from ambiguity, and designed to achieve the
objectives.

Characteristics of a good questionnaire:

A. It should contain a short letter to the respondents which includes
a. The purpose of the survey
b. An assurance of confidentiality
c. The name of the researcher
Example: Dear respondent
The following assessment has been developed to find out if online learning is
possible for you. Please answer the questions honestly. This is not a test, therefore there is no
correct or wrong answer.
Thank you very much!
 B. There is a title name for the questionnaire
Example: “Time management practices survey.”
C. It is designed to achieve the objectives. Questions should be asked to answer he objectives/
statement of the problem of the research. Thus questions which are irrelevant to the study
should be discarded.
D. The directions are clear.
E. It is designed for easy tabulation.
F. It avoids the use of double negatives.
Example: don’t you think it is not improper to enforce the dress code?
G. It avoids double- barreled questions.
Example: online learning is practical and beneficial to the students.

Types of Questionnaire

a. Open- this type has unlimited responses.

b. Closed- this type limits the scope of responses.
c. Combination- this type is a combination of open and closed types of questionnaire.

Types of Questions:

a. Multiple choice- allows respondent to select answer/s from the list.

b. Ranking- asks respondent to rank the given items.
c. Scales- asks respondent to give his/ her degree of agreement to a statement
a. Likert scale
d. Open-ended- essay type
3. Mail of Recording or reporting forms. Via ordinary and specials mails, courier services, e-mail and fax to
reach out distant data providers.
4. The Registration Method. This method of gathering data is governed by laws.
Ex. The number of registered voters is found at the COMELEC
Advantage: reliable
Disadvantage: data are limited to what are listed in the documents
5. Experimental Method. This method of gathering data is used to find out cause and effect relationships.
Advantage: can go beyond plain description
Disadvantage: lots of threats to internal and external validity.

MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY

Measures of central tendency are numerical descriptive measures which indicate or locate the center of a
distribution of a set of data.

1. Mean
- The most reliable and most sensitive measure of position.
- It is the most widely used measure.
- It is commonly known as the “average”
a. Simple Mean
Example: Find the simple mean for the following set of data:
Data A: 3 5 7 8 9 4 5 7 8 9 5
Data B: 17 12 13 15 16 14
b. Weighted Mean
Example: The following represents the responses of 50 randomly selected respondents in one item of
a research questionnaire:
Very Strongly Agree (5) 17
Strongly Agree(4) 11
Agree (3) 9
Disagree (2) 12
Strongly Disagree (1) 1
 LIKERT-TYPE
Mean Interpretation
1.00-1.79 Strongly Disagree
1.80-2.59 Disagree
2.60-3.39 Agree
3.40- 4.19 Strongly Agree
4.20.5.0 Very Strongly Agree
2. Median
- A positional measure that divides the set of data exactly into two parts.
- It is the score/observation that is centrally located between the highest and the lowest score.
- Determined by rearranging the data into an array.
Example: Find the median in the given data:
12 23 10 8 9 6 7 8 9 12 13 34
3. Mode
- The score having the highest frequency.
- The most frequently occurring score.
- The least reliable measure of position.
- Determined by way of inspection.
Example: Find the mode in the given data
12 13 14 34 12 13 12 6 7 8 9

MEASURES OF VARIABILITY AND DISPERSION

Measures of Variability and Dispersion

- The statistical tool used to describe the degree to which scores/ observations are scattered/
dispersed.
- It is used to determine the consistency/ homogeneity of scores.

A small measure of variability would indicate that the data are:

- Clustered closely around the mean

- More homogeneous
- Less variable
- More consistent
- More uniformly distributed

A big measure of variability would indicate that the data are :

- Far away from the mean

- Heterogeneous
- More variable
- Less consistent
- Less uniformly distributed

The four measures of variability

1. Range (R). The difference between the highest value and the lowest value in a set of data.
Advantage: easy to determine
Disadvantages:
- It is an unreliable measure of dispersion since only two values are involved, the highest and the
lowest value
- The range of two sets of data composed of different numbers of samples are not directly comparable
2. Variance(σ ¿ ¿2 for population∧s2 f ∨sample )¿ . The average of squared deviation from the mean
Advantage: reliable
Disadvantage: cannot be used to compare two sets of data of different units
3. Standard Deviation (σ for population∧s for sample ¿. The square root of the average deviation
from the mean
 Advantage: reliable
Disadvantage: cannot be used to compare two sets of data of different units.
4. Coefficient of Variation (cv). It is the ratio of the standard deviation to the mean. It is used to compare
the variability of two or more sets of data even when they are expressed in different units of
measurement.

standard deviation
cv =
mean

Example: The following are the ages of students under MPA and MS Criminology classes. SetA are the ages of nine
MPA students while set B are the ages of 11 MS criminology students.
A: 25 33 38 45 47 54 56 58 31
B: 25 37 39 42 49 53 55 56 36 34 48

1. Compute for
a. Mean
b. Range
c. Standard deviation
d. Variance
e. CV
2. Which group is older? Why?
3. Which group is more uniform? Why?
DATA-GATHERING TECHNIQUES

6. The Direct or Interview Method. The researcher has a direct contact with the respondents
Advantage:
- A more accurate response, since clarification can be made when the questions raised are vague.
Disadvantage:
- costly and time- consuming
7. The Indirect or Questionnaire Method. The researcher distributes the questionnaire to the respondents personally or
through mail or e- mail.
Advantage: saves time and money
Disadvantage: problem on retrieval

The direct or questionnaire method is what you will use in your thesis. In some instances, the authenticity of the data
gathered through the indirect or questionnaire method depends on the questionnaire. Therefore, questions must be
carefully worded, free from ambiguity, and designed to achieve the objectives.

Characteristics of a good questionnaire:

H. It should contain a short letter to the respondents which includes
d. The purpose of the survey
e. An assurance of confidentiality
f. The name of the researcher
Example: Dear respondent
The following assessment has been developed to find out if online learning is possible
for you. Please answer the questions honestly. This is not a test, therefore there is no correct or wrong
answer.
Thank you very much!
I. There is a title name for the questionnaire
Example: “Time management practices survey.”
J. It is designed to achieve the objectives. Questions should be asked to answer he objectives/ statement of
the problem of the research. Thus questions which are irrelevant to the study should be discarded.
K. The directions are clear.
L. It is designed for easy tabulation.
M. It avoids the use of double negatives.
Example: don’t you think it is not improper to enforce the dress code?
N. It avoids double- barreled questions.
Example: online learning is practical and beneficial to the students.

Types of Questionnaire

d. Open- this type has unlimited responses.

e. Closed- this type limits the scope of responses.
f. Combination- this type is a combination of open and closed types of questionnaire.

Types of Questions:

e. Multiple choice- allows respondent to select answer/s from the list.

f. Ranking- asks respondent to rank the given items.
g. Scales- asks respondent to give his/ her degree of agreement to a statement
b. Likert scale
h. Open-ended- essay type

8. The Registration Method. This method of gathering data is governed by laws.

Ex. The number of registered voters is found at the COMELEC
Advantage: reliable
Disadvantage: data are limited to what are listed in the documents
9. Experimental Method. This method of gathering data is used to find out cause and effect relationships.
Advantage: can go beyond plain description
Disadvantage: lots of threats to internal and external validity.