Limitation of Statistics
Limitation of Statistics
Limitation of Statistics
FIELD OF STATISTICS
Mathematical Statistics- the study and development of statistical theory and methods in the
abstract
Applied Statistics - the application of statistical methods to solve real problems involving
randomly generated data and the development of new statistical methodology motivated by
real problems. Example of Applied Statistics: Psychometric, econometrics, biostatistics.
Limitation of Statistics
Statistics is not suitable to the qualitative phenomenon
Statistics does not study individuals
Statistical laws are not exact.
Statistical table may be misused.
Statistics is only one of the methods of studying a problem
Definitions
Universe - is the set of all entities under study
A Population is the total or entire group of individuals or observation from which information is
desired by a researcher.
An Individual - is a person or object that is a member of the population being studied.
A Sample is the subset of the population
A Parameter - is a numerical summary or facts about the population. Since parameters are
description of the population, a population can have many parameters.
A Statistic - is a numerical summary or facts about the sample. A statistic will vary depending on
the sampled selected.
PROCESS OF STATISTICS
1. Identify the research objectives
A researcher must determine the question(s) he or she wants answered. The question(s)
must be detailed so that it identifies a group that is to be studied and the questions that
are to be answered.
Example: "
What is the demographic profile of the adolescents between aged 15 19 in the
Philippines in terms of:
a. Gender
b. Religion
c. Age
d. Religion
e. Family Income.
2. Collect the information needed to answer the questions
Gaining access to an entire population is often difficult and expensive. In conducting
research, we typically look at a subset of the population called a sample.
CLASSIFICATION OF VARIABLES
1. Qualitative variables is variable that yields categorical responses. It is a word or a code
that represents a class or catego1ry.
Examples:
Gender
Hair Color
Country of Birth
Socioeconomic Status
How do you feel today?
2. Quantitative variables takes on numerical values representing an amount or quantity.
Examples:
Temperature
Height
Weight Scores/Grades
Sales
• Discrete variable is a quantitative variable that either a finite number of possible values
or a countable number of possible values. The terms countable means that the valaus
result from counting, such as 0, 1, 2, 3, and so on
Examples
The number of doctors who wash their hands between patient visits
The number of voters who favor a particular candidate
The number of books in a shell
The number of police in a town
Level of Measurement
• Nominal- the lowest level of data measurement, the numbers representing by nominal
data are used only for identification or classification or categorize an object or events.
Examples:
Gender
Hair Color
Religion
Size of a coffee cup
Mode of Payment
Name of School/Universities
Blood Type
• Ordinal-Like nominal scales, identify, name, classify, or categorize, objects or events but
have an additional property of a logical or natural order to the categories or values.
Examples:
Military ranks
Social Economic Class (Lower, Middle, Upper)
Likert Scales (rank from 1-5)
• Interval - This is a measurement level not only to classifies and orders the
measurements, but it also specifies that the distances between each interval on the
scale are equivalent along the scale from low interval to high interval. A value of zero
does not mean the absence of the quantity. Arithmetic operations such as addition and
subtraction can be performed on values of the variable.
Examples:
Temperature
Trait Anxiety
IQ
• Ratio is the highest level of data measurement. It has the same properties as interval
level but the zero point value of this level is absolute; that is, the zero value represents
the absence of the characteristic being considered. Arithmetic operations such as
multiplication and divisioncan be performed on the values of the variable.
Examples:
Height
Weight
Duration (Time)
LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT