Using Descriptive Statistics

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*****Suggested Readings*****

Use your Warner text, Applied Statistics: From Bivariate Through Multivariate Techniques,

  • Read Chapter 2, “Basic Statistics, Sampling Error, and Confidence Intervals,” pages 41–80. This reading addresses the following topics:
    • Sample mean ( M).
    • Sum of squared deviations ( SS).
    • Sample variance ( s2).
    • Sample standard deviation ( s).
    • Sample standard error ( SE).
    • Confidence intervals (CIs).
  • Read Chapter 4, “Preliminary Data Screening” pages 125–184. This reading addresses the following topics:
    • Problems in real data.
    • Identification of errors and inconsistencies.
    • Missing values.
    • Data screening for individual variables.
    • Data screening for bivariate analysis.
    • Data transformations.
    • Reporting preliminary data screening.

*********For this DISCUSSION:

Using Descriptive Statistics

  • Discuss your previous experience with descriptive statistics. For example, you have probably encountered descriptive statistics in an undergraduate course and in journal articles.
  • Analyze the strengths and limitations of descriptive statistics.
  • Finally, discuss how you might use descriptive statistics in your professional or academic future.
  • Remember to cite your supporting references.

Unit2Disc2QDA

*********For this discussion:

Confidence Intervals

  • Define the term confidence interval (CI).
  • Specify the use of confidence intervals in statistical analysis.
  • Analyze why the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association strongly recommends the inclusion of confidence intervals in study results.
    • APA Style Central provides guidance in using proper APA style. See the APA Style and Format section of the Writing Center for instructions on accessing and using APA Style Central

The competency that is critical for new therapists is reflective practice. As new individuals enter into the psychology practice, it is imperative to ensure that they can relate the issue they are bound to face in the course of their work with specific scientific evidence that is available.

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WednesdayApr 11 at 6:56pm

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APA Benchmarks

The competency that is critical for new therapists is reflective practice. As new individuals enter into the psychology practice, it is imperative to ensure that they can relate the issue they are bound to face in the course of their work with specific scientific evidence that is available. The move will see to it that the new therapist is not only able to meet his professional goals and objective but also offer therapeutic services that productive and useful because they are back by scientific evidence that has been tried and tested. It is important to acknowledge the fact that real life situations are always complex and as such therapist may be faced with situations that are entirely different from what they are used to or what they expected. Therefore, the use of reflective practice will see to it that psychologists can make their decision using more than just the technical, academic or rational knowledge.

Reflective practice will also see to it that the new therapists can engage in two major processes in the course of their work. The first process is the reflection in action also known as the reflection during the event and the reflection on action which is also known as a reflection after the action. The move will, therefore, see to it that the therapist is in a better position to make effective decisions when facing complex situations even when they do not have access to all the available information as suggested by Cartwright, George, & Cowie, (2016). As such, the new professionals will be able to build and developed effective treatment plans for their patient which will not only improve their performance but the overall treatment outcome of their patients.

 

References

Cartwright, C., George, N., & Cowie, S. (2016). Reflective Practice strategies for clinical psychology students: Understanding and managing personal responses in professional roles.

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COLLAPSE SUBDISCUSSION Jean Henry

Jean Henry

ThursdayApr 12 at 4:17pm

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Hi Yvette,

Congrats on the bonus here too! This is proactive (during the learning week) and substantively developed with attention to all areas of this assignment too, and you are among the first to post here! So, just copy this note to me anytime during week 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 if you want to have a two-day late exception or a redo of any week 1,2, 3, 4, or 5 initial post or paper. Keep in mind you can give these away anytime before the end of module 5 too.  It is up to you.

That said, that is an interesting suggestion regarding reflective practice, and it is certainly one that is supported as well as warranting consideration. In fact, this is one of the reasons it is a benchmark and we also focus on it in terms of students (Bruno, & Dell’Aversana, 2016). Arguably, as it seems you likely understand well, this relates to what we know about metacognition and critical thinking. Reflection is integral to metacognitive processes.

Yes, this is key in practice in terms of clinical decision making in general, ethical decision-making processes, and also professional growth. Why might reflective engagement be essential for professional growth and development whether as a student or advanced professional?

Dr. Henry

 

Reference

Bruno, A.,& Dell’Aversana, G. (2016). Reflective practice for psychology

students: The use of reflective journal feedback in higher education.

     Psychology Learning and Teaching,16(2), 248-260.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1475725716686288

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COLLAPSE SUBDISCUSSION Yvette Lunday

Yvette Lunday

YesterdayApr 14 at 12:35pm

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Hello! Dr. J

Thank you for your consideration and the congratulations for the work I have submitted lately. I am also grateful for the offer that you have given to me for submission extension and redoing my work if need be. Reflective engagement is relevant to a student or an advanced profession as it helps either person to achieve various goals, which they may have set for themselves or career-based goals. For instances about a student, he or she is in a position to access resources that they could otherwise not afford on their own. Therefore, the reflective engagement helps in steering the education of students in the right directions by facilitating the study process.

On the other hand about the advanced professionals, they are in a better position to conduct various researchers, about their respective career fields. Therefore, the reflective engagement helps the advanced professionals to be in a place to perform researchers that they could otherwise not be able to finance (Bruno, & Dell’Aversana, 2016). Most of the researchers facilitated through the reflective engagement are usually for the benefit of the common public. For instance, medical related reflective engagement is helpful as information is developed that can help promote the operations of the various community health centers.

 

References

Bruno, A., & Dell’Aversana, G. (2016). Reflective practice for psychology students: The use of reflective journal feedback in higher education.

 

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COLLAPSE SUBDISCUSSION Jean Henry

Jean Henry

YesterdayApr 14 at 6:17pm

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Hi Yvette

Sure. What are you stating about finance? You said “Therefore, the reflective engagement helps the advanced professionals to be in a place to perform researchers that they could otherwise not be able to finance” To what specifically (briefly cited and referenced verbatim with a page number on this occasion for clarity please) are you referring? Let us look at this further… I think you must have identified something I overlooked that might be quite important…

Dr Henry

Reference

Bruno, A.,& Dell’Aversana, G. (2016). Reflective practice for psychology

students: The use of reflective journal feedback in higher education.

     Psychology Learning and Teaching,16(2), 248-260.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1475725716686288

Evaluate psychological theories and their insights into the widely varying opinions and attitudes that are expressed through social media.

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Competency

Evaluate psychological theories and their insights into the widely varying opinions and attitudes that are expressed through social media.

Instructions

We have been looking at different psychological theories and the way we can use them to better examine social media. For this assignment, you should choose yourself or another person (such as a celebrity or a politician). Spend some time looking through your/their social media accounts: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. Then write your analysis, being sure to cover these points:

  • A good introduction including who your subject is and a good overview of them and their social media use
  • Examples and discussion of schema/script theory in your subject
  • Examples and discussion of cultivation theory in your subject
  • Examples and discussion of agenda-setting theory in your subject
  • Examples and discussion of social learning in your subject
  • Examples and discussion of uses and gratifications theory in your subject
  • Conclusions

2

Journal #8

Crisis comes in all different ways and time during the life cycle of a family. Share a personal experience of how crisis impacted you, a family member or friend. What resources were used to assist the family? What would you do different if you had the knowledge of resources available to assist the individual or family in crisis?

Type of Crisis

Violence, Abuse, Rape, Addiction, Death, Suicide, Accidents, Depression, Gambling, Bankruptcy, Unemployment, Teen Pregnancy, Criminal Attack, Terrorism, Natural Disasters, Fire, Divorce, Missing Children, Runaways, etc.

Resources For a Crisis

Agencies and Organizations, Mental Health Care, Crisis Hotlines, Religious Organizations, Support Groups, School Resources such as Administrators, Counselors, CST, Nurse, Teachers.

Social Psychology paper

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This is for Social Psychology

 

  1. Choose any group of which you are not a member.
    • Possible dimensions from which you may select your group include:  race, gender, social class, nationality, sexual identity, (dis)ability, rural versus urban status, religious belief, incarceration/criminal history, occupational status, victim, military status, and so on.
  2. Explain why you selected this group.
  3. Describe stereotypes, prejudice, and/or discrimination directed toward members of this group.
    • Use concrete examples to illustrate (e.g., advertisements that depict members of the group in a stereotypical manner, statements you have overheard expressing affective reactions to the group, policies that discriminate in favor or/against the group, etc.).  Consider both negative and positive stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination.
  4. Interpret the experiences of members in this group.
    • The goal is to gain a new perspective, so consider spending time immersed in the group.  Perhaps you could interview friends, family, or community members, or attend an event hosted by the group.  Or, you could present yourself as a member of this group to gauge reactions firsthand.  Alternatively, do some online research.
  5. Evaluate reactions toward this group in light of concepts covered in the textbook.
    • For example, how might social psychological theory and/or concepts explain the origin of prejudice directed toward the group you are studying?  What are the influences on members of this group?  Utilize scholarly, peer-reviewed sources to support your points to continue developing your academic voice.  (Reminder:  Be sure to synthesize and paraphrase the information you share from these articles/sources.)
  6. Conclude with a realistic suggestion for reducing prejudice toward members of this group, based on the contact hypothesis (see Pettigrew, 1998, for elaboration).

The Walk a Mile paper

Emotional ambivalence, good, or indifferent?

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1). Emotional ambivalence, good, or indifferent?

Read the article below and explore any other material you would like to consult (including Nozick) and answer these questions.  About 500 words total.

https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/ambivalence-healthy-researchers-have-mixed-feelings

A. Do you agree with the conclusions and the use of scientific research in this article?  Overall, do you believe one should aim to be less ambivalent over time, or to maintain or allow their current ambivalence to continue in life?

B. Is it possible or desirable to be ambivalent regarding your own happiness?  Even if there are other parts of our life that it can add to, it might be that happiness is an exception that does not allow for ambivalence.  If you are able to achieve it. On the other hand, since we are generally pretty ambivalent, perhaps we should include that in our conception of a happy life. How would ambivalence fit, if it all, in a happy life?

2). The Human Condition: Allegory of The Cave or Myth of Sisyphus?

About 500 words

Explain the symbolic significance of 3-4 elements in the allegory (the sun, the shackles, the pain of ascent from the cave, etc.) and what you believe Plato is trying to convey as a whole in this Allegory.  Compare this to The Myth Of Sisyphus by Albert Camus and explain whether the two have complimentary or contrasting meaning.    Here is a link to the Allegory of the Cave:

(Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.https://web.stanford.edu/class/ihum40/cave.pdf (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Sources for comparison:

 *Myth of Sisyphus

short text:

http://philwiki.wikifoundry.com/page/Myth+Of+Sisyphus+-+Albert+Camus (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

nice lecture from Robert Solomon:

http://www.veoh.com/watch/v37387852BYT3tWNB (Links to an external site.)

3). 500-750 words total

Read “Three Metamorphoses Of The Spirit” at the link below, a very short piece by Friedrich Nietzsche. There is a short “Prologue” introducing the Ubermensch.  You are encouraged to read this as well, but our focus is on the Metamorphoses from Camel to Lion and from Lion to Child.

Link to selections from Prologue to Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Three Metamorphoses of the Spirit.   (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Directions:

1. Provide an interpretation of this metaphorical piece by Nietzsche, focusing on the Child.  Why is the Child the final stage of the spirit discussed and what kind of spiritual achievement does it represent?  What do the Lion, Camel and Great Dragon symbolize? Overall what view of human transformation and transcendence is being expressed by the author – and what personal meaning can you find in it?

Distinguish the major theories of personality

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Vignette Analysis II:This assignment focuses on vignette analysis and direct application of course concepts to the persons and situations presented in the vignette for each question. All discussions must take into account the legal and ethical considerations, as well as issues of culture and human diversity that may pertain to the situations presented below. Please keep your responses focused on what is presented in the vignette. Do not add information but use your creativity to support what you see in the vignette as written. All assignments MUST be typed and double-spaced, in APA style and must be written at graduate level English. The content, conciseness and clarity of your answers will be considered in the evaluation of your work. You must use and integrate the material presented in the course text and cite your work according to APA format. Use of outside resources for culture-specific information to enhance your vignette analysis is encouraged.This assignment should be 6-7 pages total plus a Title and Reference PageA panel of experts from Phenomenological Theories, Trait Theories and Biological Theories of personality has been asked to evaluate this case. Each panel will discuss their view of this case in direct and specific context to a minimum of four (4) of their theoretical constructs. Each panel will take into consideration the research on personality and the brain as well as culture and legal/ethical issues that might arise. For this assignment you are to present this case from each of these panels of experts: Panel I: Phenomenological Theorists Panel II: Trait Theorists Panel III: Biological/Genetic Theorists John, a 28 year old, Hispanic male, is seen in an initial interview at a community mental health clinic. He has been diagnosed as Chronically Mentally Ill. He resides with his mother and grandmother. Both his father and grandfather committed suicide in their early 30’s. John is afraid that he is fated to join the male-dominated generational pattern. John is oriented to reality and does not appear to have any disturbances in perception or thought. He does appear to be severely depressed and anxious during your interview.
Assignment OutcomesDistinguish the major theories of personality  Contrast historical and current views of personality   Integrate evidence based treatment interventions  Combine current research to assessment and technique   Identify legal, ethical issues in theories of personality and psychotherapy  Examine issues of culture and diversity in theories and application

Intersection And Religious Discrimination

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When pieces of cloth are sewn together, you might have trouble discerning the individual pieces of cloth that make the final garment, but by looking carefully, you can find the seams. You may have experienced similar difficulty in the first week of this course when asked to explore the individual aspects of culture that combine to create your unique self-identity. Forms of oppression can come together often in almost imperceptible ways to form the complex environment in which you and your clients live and interact. As a social worker, you must examine carefully the intersections between religious discrimination, sexism, classism, and racism so you can respond accordingly.

To prepare: Consider this week’s resources that describe how religion intersects with other forms of oppression.

Submit your response to those resources and analyze what you think is the role of religion in reinforcing sexism, classism, and racism. As a social worker, how can you address these issues on a micro and macro level?

 

2

Psychology is the study of the mind and behaviour. Psychology has adopted the scientific method which means that it studies questions that can be tested in a precise, objective, publicly verifiable fashion. The first step in doing psychology scientifically is learning how to ask testable questions.

Please come up with a question and turn it into a hypothesis by stating it as truth, and then identify the Independent Variable and the Dependent Variable.

Independent Variable: This is the variable that you manipulate to see how it will affect the dependent variable.

Dependent Variable: This is the variable that you will measure.

Is there a Control group? You should be able to rule out alternative explanations for the differences between your experimental and control groups.

Research Participants: Who are your participants? Random assignment? Make sure you consider how representative your sample is.

Is it a Double-Blind Study or Single-Blind?: Single blind means that the participants do not know what your hypothesis is. Double blind is one step beyond. In a double-blind study, participants and the actual people running the experiment (i.e., the experimenters) do not know the hypothesis.

Conceptual Theory and Organizational Overview

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Conceptual Theory and Organizational Overview

For this assignment, you will select a nonprofit, for-profit, or government human services organization for the focus of your course assignments. You will also select a theoretical approach to guide you as you examine the work of this organization.

You will present your selections in a well-written essay with peer-reviewed theoretical and practitioner support cited and referenced.

Choosing an Organization

The organization you choose for this assignment must be one for which sufficient information is available to allow you to reflect on interagency collaboration at a local, state, or national level. Because the course assignments will focus on this organization, read the assignments now to ensure that the organization you select will work for each assignment.

You may choose an organization from the following list or use another organization with the approval of your instructor.

American Red Cross (local chapter).

Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts (local organization).

Boys and Girls Clubs of America (local organization).

Catholic Community Services (local chapter).

Department of Army, Navy, or Air Force mental health or social services program.

Aurora Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente Healthcare, or other similar large state or regional health care system, mental health, or social services program.

Lutheran Social Services (local chapter).

State or county mental health program.

State or county public health or prevention program.

Veterans Administration mental health or social services program.

Veterans Administration vet centers.

Choosing a Theoretical Approach

You may select one of the following theoretical approaches as described in the course textbook  or choose another leadership theoretical approach with the approval of your instructor.

Behavioral theory.

Path-goal theory.

Leader-member exchange theory.

Transformational leadership.

Authentic leadership.

Servant leadership.

Adaptive leadership.

Assignment Requirements

Your paper must include:

An overview of the organization you selected, including its mission, vision, values, and target population.

An overview of the leadership theory you selected as it relates to contemporary and future human service organizational management.

An introduction to the application of a leadership theory to organizational management in a multidisciplinary human services organization.

An evaluation of the value of the selected leadership theory in application to the selected organization.

A summary or conclusions about the value of leadership theory in application to organizational management in general.

Additional Requirements

Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.

APA formatting: Headings that define the sections of the paper, resources, and citations are formatted according to current edition APA style and formatting.

References: Include at least one academic reference per page, including the course textbook as one of the reference sources.

Length of paper: 4–6 typed, double-spaced pages, excluding the cover page and references.

Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 points.

Turnitin: Submit your paper to Turnitin for analysis.

Submit your paper as a Word attachment and attach your Turnitin report

What is a confidence interval? According to the reading material assigned in the course, it is a range (top and bottom) value to the set of numbers to address the mean of the population giving the researcher an idea of the probability or level of confidence (Warner, 2013).

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Response Guidelines

Provide a substantive contribution that advances the discussion in a meaningful way by identifying strengths of the posting, challenging assumptions, and asking clarifying questions. Your response is expected to reference the assigned readings, as well as other theoretical, empirical, or professional literature to support your views and writings. Reference your sources using standard APA guidelines. Review the Participation Guidelines section of the Discussion Participation Scoring Guide to gain an understanding of what is required in a substantive response.

Discussion Response Peer1 (Teddrick)

What is a confidence interval? According to the reading material assigned in the course, it is a range (top and bottom) value to the set of numbers to address the mean of the population giving the researcher an idea of the probability or level of confidence (Warner, 2013). Upon more research regarding this, I was better to understand that a confidence interval is basically to estimate the mean of a population. The confidence interval focuses on this by providing the range of values, scores or numbers that may be contained in the population of interest (Horrell, Michelson, McCormack, & Prins, 2012).What I am putting together with this is that if we have a group of grades from an entire school district, the confidence interval is going to be a pool of those grades to give us the mean for the students in that school district. This would be a level of confidence for the research to say that the sample pulled from the entire population would represent the entire pool on the graph created showing those numbers or scores.Why does the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association strongly recommend the inclusion of CI’s in study results? It is strongly suggested to include CI’s in study results and reporting so that there is enough information for whom ever is reading to be able to understand what they are reading. The reader should be able to recognize and understand the basics of the analyses, come up with some estimates and summaries from the information that is provided. It was also suggested that when a study includes the use of graphs or table that includes a reference of a mean or slopes, which it does need to include the confidence interval (Association, 2010). It really seems that they important factor with including the confidence intervals in any report is because it is a really good way to get across the results of a study in a visual manner, due to showing the effect and size of the study, showing where the mean of the sample is, and if that sample is skewed or is “normal” by the shape of the slopes (Association, 2010).

ReferencesAssociation, A. P. (2010). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Horrell, K., Michelson, D., McCormack, D., & Prins, J. (2012, April). NIST/SEMATECH e-Handbook of Statistical Methods. Retrieved from http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/

Warner, R. M. (2013). Applied Statistics: From Bivariate Through Multivariate Techniques (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Discussion Response Peer2 (Cait)

Confidence intervals (CI) are used to derive or estimate information given from a sample (Warner, 2013). Additionally, CI’s are also utilized to find the mean or values of samples (Warner, 2013). In many instances, CI’s can be used to estimate a population mean, probability and will determine the lower and upper limit (mean) of values from samples and/or data (Warner, 2013). While CI’s are completely appropriate to use when finding the sample mean, the value of a population or Pearsons r, it is important to remember that CI’s should not be used to generalize an entire population (Warner, 2013).

In the article, The Use of Confidence Intervals as a Meta-Analytic Lens to Summarize the Effects of Teacher Education Technology Courses on Preservice Teacher TPACK, the researchers used CI’s to find the mean of teaching technology (TKTT) in a University classroom (Young, Young & Hamilton, 2013). Specifically, Young et al., (2013) used CI’s to summarize their quantitative TPAK data to determine the value of the samples and find the mean of the scores. Using CI’s in this article, provided an excellent example of why researchers would use CI’s in statistical analysis. In short, the main goal of using CI’s in this type of study would be to create data that could determine the means of achievement, summarize the data (based on the samples) and estimate the means of the sample population (Young et al., 2013).

CI’s were said to be extremely useful in Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. The APA manual stated that CI’s should be used to determine major outcomes in statistics (Warner, 2013). By using CI’s, the APA manual believes that researchers will be able to obtain many sample statistics and effect sizes (Warner, 2013). Additionally, it was also stated that CI’s should be used for sample means (Warner, 2013). However, while CI’s can be incredibly beneficial, it is important to remember that they should never be used to make inferences about the general population as a whole, as that data would be too generalized and not entirely accurate (Warner, 2013).

Reference

Warner, R. M. (2013). Applied Statistics From Bivariate Through Multivariate Techniques (2nd ed.). Thousand Oakes, CA: SAGE Publications.

Young, J. R., Young, J. L., & Hamilton, C. (2013). The Use of Confidence Intervals as a Meta-Analytic Lens to Summarize the Effects of Teacher Education Technology Courses on Preservice Teacher TPACK. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 46(2), 149-172.

While some individuals may not recognize the term descriptive statistics, there is an extremely high probability that they have used, referenced or referred to them while participating in their daily life.

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Response Guidelines

Provide a substantive contribution that advances the discussion in a meaningful way by identifying strengths of the posting, challenging assumptions, and asking clarifying questions. Your response is expected to reference the assigned readings, as well as other theoretical, empirical, or professional literature to support your views and writings. Reference your sources using standard APA guidelines. Review the Participation Guidelines section of the Discussion Participation Scoring Guide to gain an understanding of what is required in a substantive response.

Discussion response Peer1 Cait Bahr

While some individuals may not recognize the term descriptive statistics, there is an extremely high probability that they have used, referenced or referred to them while participating in their daily life. Warner (2013) states that descriptive statistics are mainly used to summarize information or numbers from samples. These statistics can be used to find the mean of test scores (if you are a teacher), or for something as simple as political polling during an election period (Warner, 2013). While there are appropriate times and ways to utilize descriptive statistics, there are also times when descriptive statistics should not be used (Warner, 2013). For example, if researchers are trying to find the side effects of specific medications, they would choose not to use descriptive statistics because they are too generalized (Warner, 2013). If researchers were to use descriptive statistics to find the side effects, the samples could be skewed (Warner, 2013). While there are limitations to descriptive statistics (ie. medicine, research studies, etc.) it can still be extremely beneficial for people who work in certain professions (Warner, 2013).

Speaking from experience, I use descriptive statistics quite frequently after grading my student’s exams and assignments. It is interesting to add up all of the student’s scores (mean) and see how they compared to prior tests or against other classes. Finding the mean of the exams also allows the students to see how they are doing overall. While I currently use descriptive statistics in my job, I know my future career with undoubtedly requires the use of descriptive statistics too. After graduating with my MA in Psychology with a specialization in ABA, I am going to take the BCBA certification test. If everything goes as planned, then I will be a board certified behavior analyst. As a BCBA, I will be recording data and will be responsible for conducting behavioral assessments. I would definitely be able to utilize descriptive statistics while recording frequency or duration data. Using descriptive statistics to find the means of duration and frequency data will be useful for not only myself but for other teachers and parents to see how the students are performing behaviorally.

In my previous experience, aside from work, I have seen descriptive statistics predominately during the US Presidential Election. Every time I turned on the news there were always polls or statistics depicting the possible outcome of the Presidency based on samples. While this was interesting to see then, I now realize that these polls had limitations and were too generalized.

Reference

Warner, R. M. (2013). Applied Statistics From Bivariate Through Multivariate Techniques (2nd ed.). Thousand Oakes, CA: SAGE Publications.

Discussion Response Peer2 Teddrick

I have encountered descriptive statistics various times throughout my undergraduate career, and a handful of times during my post undergrad classes. When I majored in Neuroscience, we would often deal lightly with descriptive statistics when writing lab reports or research papers for biology, chemistry, and physics. Typically this involved putting data into Microsoft Excel and creating a line graph detailing how two variables were related. Last quarter, in my Tests and Measurements course, I came across a couple of different journal articles using descriptive statistics to evaluate individuals with various psychological disorders.

Descriptive statistics is defined as a form of statistics dedicated solely to summarizing information about a particular sample (Warner, 2012). Unlike inferential statistics, the information gathered from descriptive statistics cannot be generalized to a larger population, which could be considered a limitation (Warner, 2012). The use of descriptive statistics also runs the risk of losing vital information related to the data (“Descriptive Statistics,” 2006). For example, knowing a participant’s heart rate does not tell us about important factors that could contribute to the heart rate, such as stress level and physical fitness. However, descriptive statistics is particularly useful for summarizing a large amount of data and making it easier to understand, as well as to make comparisons (“Descriptive Statistics,” 2006).

In the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) and ABA therapy, behavior analysts often utilize descriptive statistics to portray a client’s progress during therapy. For example, if a target of therapy is to reduce the amount of tantrums a child engages in, we might take data before the intervention, and then several times while the intervention is being implemented. The data lets us know whether the intervention is successful. Furthermore, data taken by observation can also give clues as to when a tantrum is more likely to occur (e.g. time of day, before or after an activity). I am sure that, when I become a behavior analyst, I will utilize descriptive statistics often in order to summarize data for families to understand the effect that a certain intervention has on their child’s behavior.

References

Warner, R. M. (2013). Applied statistics: From bivariate through multivariate techniques, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Descriptive Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved January 15, 2017, from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/statdesc.php