LECTURE 4: Introduction to Psychological Science: Statistical Analysis Methods

Flashcards covering key vocabulary from the lecture on statistical analysis methods in psychological science, including descriptive and inferential statistics.

Descriptive Statistics

Methods used to organize, summarize, and present data in a meaningful way, including frequency distributions, measures of central tendency, and measures of variability.

Inferential Statistics

Methods used to draw conclusions or make predictions about a population based on a sample of data, often involving hypothesis testing and probability theory.

Frequency Distribution

A table or graph (like a Histogram) that shows the number of times each data point or range of data points occurs in a dataset.

Measures of Central Tendency

Statistical measures that describe the center point of a dataset, including the Mode, Mean, and Median.

Mode

The value that appears most frequently in a dataset.

Mean

The arithmetic average of all values in a dataset, calculated by summing all values and dividing by the number of values.

Median

The middle value in a dataset when the values are arranged in ascending or descending order.

Measures of Variability

Statistical measures that describe how spread out or dispersed the data points are in a dataset, including the Range, Variance, and Standard Deviation.

Range

The difference between the highest and lowest values in a dataset.

Variance (s²)

A measure of how far each number in a dataset is from the mean, calculated as the average of the squared differences from the mean.

Standard Deviation (s)

The square root of the variance, providing a measure of the average distance of data points from the mean.

Correlation Coefficient

A statistical measure that quantifies the direction (nature) and strength (degree) of the relationship between two variables, ranging from -1 to +1.

Negative Correlation

A relationship between two variables where an increase in one variable is associated with a decrease in the other.

Positive Correlation

A relationship between two variables where an increase in one variable is associated with an increase in the other.

Statistically Significant

A result that is unlikely to have occurred by chance, commonly indicated by a p-value less than 0.05 (p < .05), meaning there is less than a 5% likelihood the results are due to chance.

p < .05

A common threshold in statistical analysis indicating that the probability of obtaining the observed results by chance is less than 5%, typically defining statistical significance.