Research Methods in Psychology: Interpreting Data

Another measure of central tendency is the mode. The mode is the most frequently occurring score in a distribution.

Measuring Variation

Measures of variation tell researchers how much the scores in a distribution differ. Examples of measures of variation include the range and the standard deviation. The range is the difference between the highest and the lowest scores in the distribution. Researchers calculate the range by subtracting the lowest score from the highest score. The standard deviation provides more information about the amount of variation in scores. It tells a researcher the degree to which scores vary around the mean of the data.

Inferential Statistics

After analyzing statistics, researchers make inferences about how reliable and significant their data are.

Example: The researcher’s survey of the students in three classes showed differences in how long the students studied for each course. The mean number of hours for students in Course A was about eight hours, and for students in Courses B and C, the average was about six hours. Does this mean Course A requires the most hours of study? Were the differences the researcher observed in study time real or just due to chance? In other words, can he generalize from the samples of students he surveyed to the whole population of students? He needs to determine the reliability and significance of his statistics.

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Research Methods in Psychology

Psychology

Interpreting Data

Measuring Variation

Inferential Statistics

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