1. Differentiate descriptive and inferential statistics. (Give example for each.

)
2. Differentiate population and samples. (Give example for each.)
3. Enumerate the 3 properties of summation notation. ( Give at least 3 example for each.)

Differentiate descriptive and inferential statistics. (Give example for each.)

Descriptive statistics are numbers that are used to summarize and

describe data. The word "data" refers to the information that has been
collected from an experiment, a survey, a historical record, etc. (By the way,
"data" is plural. One piece of information is called a "datum.") If we are
analyzing birth certificates, for example, a descriptive statistic might be the
percentage of certificates issued in New York State, or the average age of
the mother. Any other number we choose to compute also counts as a
descriptive statistic for the data from which the statistic is computed.
Several descriptive statistics are often used at one time to give a full picture
of the data.
Descriptive statistics are just descriptive. They do not
involve generalizing beyond the data at hand. Generalizing from our data
to another set of cases is the business of inferential statistics, which you'll
be studying in another section. Here we focus on (mere) descriptive
statistics.

Descriptive statistics are used to describe or summarize data in ways that are meaningful and
useful. For example, it would not be useful to know that all of the participants in our example wore
blue shoes. However, it would be useful to know how spread out their anxiety ratings were.
Descriptive statistics is at the heart of all quantitative analysis.

Descriptive statistics provide a concise summary of data. You can summarize data
numerically or graphically. For example, the manager of a fast food restaurant tracks
the wait times for customers during the lunch hour for a week. Then, the manager
summarizes the data.

Inferential statistics use a random sample of data taken from a population to

describe and make inferences about the population. Inferential statistics are valuable
when examination of each member of an entire population is not convenient or
possible. For example, to measure the diameter of each nail that is manufactured in a
mill is impractical. You can measure the diameters of a representative random
sample of nails. You can use the information from the sample to make
generalizations about the diameters of all of the nails.
Descriptive statistics uses the data to provide descriptions of the population, either
through numerical calculations or graphs or tables. Inferential statistics makes
inferences and predictions about a population based on a sample of data taken from the
population in question
What is the Difference Between
Population and Sample?
In the methodology section of your dissertation you will be required to
provide details about both the population and sample of your study.
These sections are a common stumbling block for many students, as
students often fail to properly distinguish between their population and
their sample. So, what exactly is the difference between the two?
First, your sample is the group of individuals who actually
participate in your study. These are the individuals who you end up
interviewing (e.g., in a qualitative study) or who actually complete
your survey (e.g., in a quantitative study). People who could have
been participants in your study but did not actually participate are not
considered part of your sample. For example, say you e-mailed study
invitations to 200 people on a listserv and 100 of them end up
participating in your study (i.e., complete your survey or your
experiment). Your sample is the 100 individuals who participated in
your study. The 100 individuals who received invitations but did not
participate would not be considered part of your sample; rather, they
are part of what is often called the sampling frame. Your sampling
frame is the group of individuals who could possibly be in your study,
which in the above example would be the 200 individuals on the e-
mail listserv.
On the other hand, your population is the broader group of people to
whom you intend to generalize the results of your study. Your
sample will always be a subset of your population. Your exact
population will depend on the scope of your study. For instance, say
your research question asks if there is an association between
emotional intelligence and job satisfaction in nurses. In this case, your
population might be nurses in the United States. However, if the scope
of your study is more narrow (e.g., if your study deals with a local
problem or a specific specialty/industry), then your population would
be more specific, such as “nurses in the state of Florida” or “licensed
practical nurses in the United States.” Importantly, your population
should only include people to whom your results will apply. For
example, if you do not have good reason to believe that your results
will apply to all nurses in the United States, then your population will
need to be more specific. If you are stuck on defining your population,
think about how you would fill in the blank in the following sentence:
“The results of my study will apply to _____.” Your answer will help
determine how you define your population.
To summarize: your sample is the group of individuals who
participate in your study, and your population is the broader group of
people to whom your results will apply. As an analogy, you can think
of your sample as an aquarium and your population as the ocean. Your
sample is small portion of a vaster ocean that you are attempting to
understand. Properly distinguishing between these two concepts will
aid you as you navigate the methodological details of your
dissertation.
Population vs Sample

The main difference between a population and sample has to do with how observations are assigned to
the data set.

 A population includes all of the elements from a set of data.

 A sample consists one or more observations drawn from the population.

Depending on the sampling method, a sample can have fewer observations than the population, the same
number of observations, or more observations. More than one sample can be derived from the same
population.

Other differences have to do with nomenclature, notation, and computations. For example,

 A measurable characteristic of a population, such as a mean or standard deviation, is called

a parameter; but a measurable characteristic of a sample is called a statistic.
 We will see in future lessons that the mean of a population is denoted by the symbol μ; but the
mean of a sample is denoted by the symbol x.
 We will also learn in future lessons that the formula for the standard deviation of a population is
different from the formula for the standard deviation of a sample.