The field of statistics is divided into two major divisions: descriptive and inferential. Each of these segments is important, offering different techniques that accomplish different objectives. Descriptive statistics describe what is going on in a population or data set. Inferential statistics, by contrast, allow scientists to take findings from a sample group and generalize them to a larger population. The two types of statistics have some important differences. Show Descriptive StatisticsDescriptive statistics is the type of statistics that probably springs to most people’s minds when they hear the word “statistics.” In this branch of statistics, the goal is to describe. Numerical measures are used to tell about features of a set of data. There are a number of items that belong in this portion of statistics, such as:
These measures are important and useful because they allow scientists to see patterns among data, and thus to make sense of that data. Descriptive statistics can only be used to describe the population or data set under study: The results cannot be generalized to any other group or population. Types of Descriptive StatisticsThere are two kinds of descriptive statistics that social scientists use: Measures of central tendency capture general trends within the data and are calculated and expressed as the mean, median, and mode. A mean tells scientists the mathematical average of all of a data set, such as the average age at first marriage; the median represents the middle of the data distribution, like the age that sits in the middle of the range of ages at which people first marry; and, the mode might be the most common age at which people first marry. Measures of spread describe how the data are distributed and relate to each other, including:
Measures of spread are often visually represented in tables, pie and bar charts, and histograms to aid in the understanding of the trends within the data. Inferential StatisticsInferential statistics are produced through complex mathematical calculations that allow scientists to infer trends about a larger population based on a study of a sample taken from it. Scientists use inferential statistics to examine the relationships between variables within a sample and then make generalizations or predictions about how those variables will relate to a larger population. It is usually impossible to examine each member of the population individually. So scientists choose a representative subset of the population, called a statistical sample, and from this analysis, they are able to say something about the population from which the sample came. There are two major divisions of inferential statistics:
Techniques that social scientists use to examine the relationships between variables, and thereby to create inferential statistics, include linear regression analyses, logistic regression analyses, ANOVA, correlation analyses, structural equation modeling, and survival analysis. When conducting research using inferential statistics, scientists conduct a test of significance to determine whether they can generalize their results to a larger population. Common tests of significance include the chi-square and t-test. These tell scientists the probability that the results of their analysis of the sample are representative of the population as a whole. Descriptive vs. Inferential StatisticsAlthough descriptive statistics is helpful in learning things such as the spread and center of the data, nothing in descriptive statistics can be used to make any generalizations. In descriptive statistics, measurements such as the mean and standard deviation are stated as exact numbers. Even though inferential statistics uses some similar calculations — such as the mean and standard deviation — the focus is different for inferential statistics. Inferential statistics start with a sample and then generalizes to a population. This information about a population is not stated as a number. Instead, scientists express these parameters as a range of potential numbers, along with a degree of confidence. Cite this Article Format mla apa chicagoYour Citation Taylor, Courtney. "The Difference Between Descriptive and Inferential Statistics." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/differences-in-descriptive-and-inferential-statistics-3126224 (accessed December 19, 2022). What are the 3 types of statistic?They are: (i) Mean, (ii) Median, and (iii) Mode. Statistics is the study of Data Collection, Analysis, Interpretation, Presentation, and organizing in a specific way.
What are the 2 main methods in statistics?Two main statistical methods are used in data analysis: descriptive statistics, which summarizes data using indexes such as mean and median and another is inferential statistics, which draw conclusions from data using statistical tests such as student's t-test.
Is there different types of statistics?The two major areas of statistics are known as descriptive statistics, which describes the properties of sample and population data, and inferential statistics, which uses those properties to test hypotheses and draw conclusions. Descriptive statistics include mean (average), variance, skewness, and kurtosis.
What are the 4 statistics?Types of Data in Statistics (4 Types - Nominal, Ordinal, Discrete, Continuous)
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