PSY 110 Basic Statistics Concepts

Vocabulary flashcards covering core terms, descriptive vs. inferential statistics, types of variables, and measurement scales from the PSY 110 introductory material.

Population

The entire collection of people under consideration or of interest in a study, sharing one or more attributes or characteristics.

Sample

A subgroup of a population, typically studied when the full population is inaccessible or too costly in time, energy, and resources to reach.

Parameter

A measured characteristic or numerical value that describes an entire population.

Statistic

A measured characteristic or numerical value that describes a part of a population, specifically a sample.

Descriptive Statistics

Statistics primarily aimed at describing and summarizing data.

Inferential Statistics

Statistics primarily aimed at inferring information about a population from a sample to make generalizations, estimations, predictions, or decisions.

Variable

Something measured that takes on different characteristics, scores, or values across different people or things.

Constant

A characteristic where responses do not vary because every individual shares the exact same response.

Dataset

A collection of variables, information, scores, or observations about a group of people, animals, or things.

Latent Construct

A variable that cannot be measured directly and must be measured indirectly using self-reports, behaviors, or item responses.

Manifest Variable

A variable that can be measured directly.

Operational Definition

Defining the specific way a variable is measured or manipulated in a study.

Discrete Variable

A variable that takes on distinct, countable numerical values with a limited number of values and no intermediate values between adjacent points.

Continuous Variable

A variable that theoretically can assume unlimited or infinite values between scale extremes and can be measured to any level of precision.

NOIR

An acronym for remembering the four levels of measurement scale: Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, and Ratio.

NOS

An acronym used in SPSS to recall its recognized measurement categories: Nominal, Ordinal, and Scale.

Nominal Scale

A categorical measurement scale with named categories that have no quantitative value or natural order/ranking.

Ordinal Scale

A categorical measurement scale with ordered or ranked levels indicating 'how much', though the differences or distances between categories are not consistent or equal.

Interval Scale

A measurement scale with ordered numerical categories and equal intervals between points, but lacking a true zero (zero does not mean absence of the construct).

Ratio Scale

A measurement scale that meets interval scale criteria and has a meaningful true zero, where zero indicates the total absence of the variable or construct.