moduletitleanalysisofquantitativedata–i.docVIP

Module Title: Analysis of Quantitative Data – I Overview and Check List Objectives To understand the role of descriptive statistics in quantitative data analysis and to apply basic methods of statistical inference using hypothesis tests and confidence intervals At the end of this unit you should be able to: Identify types of variables you will be collecting (or have collected) Select appropriate graphical summaries Select and interpret appropriate numerical summaries Describe interesting features of your data Clearly communicate a summary of your data Compute simple confidence intervals for means and proportions in one- and two-sample designs Carry out and interpret statistical hypothesis tests for means and proportions in one- and two-sample designs and for crosstabulations Carry out and interpret basic nonparametric tests Readings Main Reference: Supplementary references: Background Data analysis is a synonym for statistical analysis. Why do we need a synonym? Perhaps because for most people their first encounter(s) with Statistics were somewhat negative, daunting, impenetrable, arcane, etc. Why do we need Statistics? Because, as Norman and Streiner put it, “the world is full of variation, and sometimes it‘s hard to tell real differences from natural variation.” Statistics addresses the variability among people or within one person from one time to the next. The word “statistic” has a purely superficial resemblance to the word “sadistic”. But the word actually comes from the Latin word for the “state”, because the first data collection was for the purposes of the state – tax collection and military service. Birth and mortality rates appeared in England in the 17th century, about the same time that French mathematicians were laying the groundwork for probability by studying gambling problems. Applications to studies of heredity, agriculture and psychology were developed by the great English scientists, Galton, Pearson, and Fisher, who gave