Chapter 1
Page 2 Math Anxiety Do not flip through the text Familiarize yourself with the index & glossary Forget past math failures…statistics is different! Yerkes-Dodson Law: Some anxiety is helpful Over-prepare for tests to reduce test anxiety Use your resources! Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: think positive Work with a partner! Icebreaker activity
Page 3 Uses of Statistics Statistics: branch of mathematics that focuses on the organization, analysis & interpretation of a group of numbers. Uses: -read the work of other psychologists -do your own research -hone your reasoning & intuition
Page 4 Misuses of Statistics Using Correlations to infer causation Incorrect Interpretation of Data
Page 5 Calculator Use
Page 6 Descriptive vs. Inferential Statistics Descriptive statistics Summarize/organize scores from a research study Abbreviates data that we have Includes percentage, range, mean, mode, median, standard deviation and variance EX: What’s the average age of students in this class? Ask each student & average Inferential statistics Draw conclusions/make inferences that go beyond the scores from a research study -allows statisticians to generalize from a sample to a population Uses a small amount of data to infer characteristics about a larger group EX: What’s the average age of students at SBVC? Ask this class & then infer about SBVC RISKY! Especially if the sample is not representative of the population However, predictions are made with better than chance accuracy & limitations are known
Page 7 Samples & Populations Population: the entire group of people or animals in which the researcher is interested in Sample: a smaller number of observations taken from the total number making up the population
Page 8 Inferential statistics is the technique of predicting unknown parameters (of a population) on the basis of known statistics (from a sample). Statistics & Parameters Parameter: any measure obtained by having measured an entire population Statistic: any measure obtained by having measured a sample