MODULE 1

1. Describe the nature of Statistics. With your knowledge of statistics in this

sense, how do you apply it in real life situation? Illustrate your answer.

Statistics serve two primary purposes. The first is to summarize and describe
a set of data from a research study. The second is to provide an objective basis for
drawing conclusions from the data collected in a research study. Statistics is also the
art and science of collecting, analyzing, presenting, and interpreting data.

We apply the knowledge of statistics in real life by Predicting Disease. Lots

of times on the news reports, statistics about a disease are reported. If the reporter
simply reports the number of people who either have the disease or who have died
from it, it's an interesting fact but it might not mean much to your life. But when
statistics become involved, you have a better idea of how that disease may affect
you. For example, studies have shown that 85 to 95 percent of lung cancers are
smoking related. The statistic should tell you that almost all lung cancers are related
to smoking and that if you want to have a good chance of avoiding lung cancer, you
shouldn't smoke. Political Campaigns, whenever there's an election, the news
organizations consult their models when they try to predict who the winner is.
Candidates consult voter polls to determine where and how they campaign.
Statistics play a part in which your elected government officials will be.

2. Why is statistics considered a science? Is interpretation possible without the

analysis of the data first? Why?
Statistics is considered to be a science due to its nature. You have to know
what you want to get out of your statistics before you can choose the right way to
apply them. Take some common philosophy such as, if the data aren't good enough,
no amount of statistical manipulation will bring out the result. Statistics is the
science of collecting, organizing, presenting, analyzing, and interpreting numerical
data for the purpose of assisting in making a more effective decision.
It is not possible to interpret without analysis of the data for example before
you decide what to wear in the morning, you collect a variety of data: the season of
 the year, what the forecast says the weather is going to be like, which clothes are
clean and which are dirty, and what you will be doing during the day. You then
analyze those data. Perhaps you think, "It's summer, so it's usually warm."
That analysis helps you determine the best course of action, and you base your
apparel decision on your interpretation of the information. You might choose a t-
shirt and shorts on a summer day when you know you'll be outside, but bring a
sweater with you if you know you'll be in an air-conditioned building.

3. Is it true that a sample is always an approximate picture of the population?

Why? What will happen if the sample you have drawn from the population
does not represent the population?
Yes, to be totally confident that any findings are really general statements
about the population, we would have to inspect the entire population. We would
have to say that all males were tested for nonverbal sensitivity, as were all females,
and that the predicted difference indeed held up; that income and readership were
measured in all newspaper subscribing households, etc. If we look at every case in
the population, we can be completely confident that we’ve described the
relationships correctly. But this is usually impossible. It is obvious that a scientist
will hardly ever be in a situation where the whole population can be scrutinized. We
will never be able to contrast all the males in the Philippines to all the females, or,
for that matter, to ask every registered voter who his or her favorite candidate for
the presidency is. Since hypotheses generally cannot be tested on populations, the
scientist will have to be content with selecting a subset from the population. The
hypotheses can then be tested on this subset from the population and the results of
the test generalized to the population. Such a subset is the sample. It is considered
to be representative of the population. Notice we did not say that the sample
actually is representative of the population; merely that it is thought to be so. It
must be selected in such a way that any conclusions drawn from studying the
sample can be generalized.

If the sample have drawn from the population does not represent the
population, the results cannot be regarded as correct. Sample doesn’t represent the
 population is also called Sampling Bias. It is undesirable, but often unavoidable.
Sampling bias is mostly classified as a subtype of selection bias, sometimes
specifically termed sample selection bias, but some classify it as a separate type of
bias. A distinction, albeit not universally accepted, of sampling bias is that it
undermines the external validity of a test (the ability of its results to be generalized
to the entire population), while selection bias mainly addresses internal validity for
differences or similarities found in the sample at hand. In this sense, errors
occurring in the process of gathering the sample or cohort cause sampling bias,
while errors in any process thereafter cause selection bias.

4. When can a variable be considered independent and dependent? Give

examples to illustrate your answer.
A variable can be considered independent when it is manipulated or treated
to determine if it influences or causes a change on the dependent variable while
Dependent, is the condition that appear, disappear or change as the researcher
introduces, removes or changes the independent variable.
For example, if you treat variable y as a function of variable z, then z is your
independent variable and y is your dependent variable. This means that the value of
y, say academic achievement depends on the value of z, say mental ability.
Dependent variables are sometimes called criterion variables, while
independent variables are sometimes called predictor variables or variants.

5. Give the uses of statistics and explain each use briefly. Do you think that any
science will develop without tests of the hypotheses? Support your answer.
a. It can give a precise description of data. It enables us to make precise statements
or judgments about averages, variability and relationship. Ex. Is when you
describe the academic performance of a group of pupils according to the
computed mean, standard deviation, and correction with another factor.
b. It can predict the behavior of individuals. In school, the grades of students can be
predicted through aptitude test. In industry, the work performance is usually
predicted by an aptitude test related to that particular type of work. Other sets of
data can be used to predict the success of a teacher in his work. To measure the
 success of individuals, we may have to compute measures like the mean,
standard scores, percentiles, statins and other statistical methods.
c. It can be used to test a hypothesis. We can determine whether a variable is
related or not to another variable through a test of inference such as in
correction. Other statistical measures we can apply for inferential purposes are
the t-test, chi-square test, F-test, and others. It is wise to remember that your
choice of the statistics to use in testing hypothesis depends upon the nature of
your data. This includes the scale of measurement used such as nominal, ordinal,
internal, and ratio; and its distribution whether normally distributed or not; and
other considerations such as your purpose.

There’s no any science will develop without tests of hypotheses because

theory is only capable of predicting the sign of a relationship, a directional (one-
sided) hypothesis test can be configured so that only a statistically significant
result supports theory. Additional to this scientific method has four steps:
1. Observation and description of a phenomenon or group of phenomena.
2. Formulation of an hypothesis to explain the phenomena. In physics, the
hypothesis often takes the form of a causal mechanism or a mathematical
relation.
3. Use of the hypothesis to predict the existence of other phenomena, or to
predict quantitatively the results of new observations.
4. Performance of experimental tests of the predictions by several independent
experimenters and properly performed experiments.

If the experiments bear out the hypothesis it may come to be regarded as

a theory or law of nature (more on the concepts of hypothesis, model, theory and
law below). If the experiments do not bear out the hypothesis, it must be
rejected or modified