Statistics

Nominal data are:

categories that cannot be ordered from smallest to largest

All of the following are measures of central tendency EXCEPT

correlation coefficient

All of the following are examples of descriptive statistics EXCEPT

statistical significance

Inferential statistics refers to

the confidence with which we can generalize from samples

Descriptive statistics is:

the methods used to describe the essential characteristics of the data

In order to save time and money, psychologists collect their data by:

the use of samples.

What is the purpose of using a frequency distribution to examine the data?

It organizes the raw data into a chart, making it more easily interpreted.

In a normal distribution (bell curve), what percentage of scores fall below the mean?

50%

In a normal distribution (bell curve), what percentage of scores fall within one standard deviation from the mean?

68%

In a normal distribution (bell curve), what percentage of scores fall within two standard deviations from the mean?

95%

Ordinal data are like:

first, second, third, fourth ... last.

Which is a categorical variable

gender

Which of the following measures of central tendencies would be most effected by extreme scores?

mean

Why is it impossible to ever have a p=.00?

Even the most thorough studies have a small likelihood of obtaining the results they did based on chance.

If a study resulted in a large p value (such as p>.50), what could we say about the results?

There is a relatively high probability that we received these results just by chance

Which of the following is not a score?

a person's nationality

What is the correct order in which information should be presented in an academic psychological article?

abstract, introduction, methods, analysis,, discussion, references

If a set of data has a relatively low variability, this means that the scores in the data set

are closely clustered around the mean.

Data which take the form of categories such as diagnoses of different sorts of mental illness:

are common in psychological research

What method of data evaluation will allow you to determine how frequently each score in a data set occurs?

frequency distribution

Statistics is essential to psychologists because:

it helps them see reliable and valid relationships between variables.

Which measure of central tendency is most subject to extreme scores?

mean