• ## Summary

Search form
• 00:12

DR. ELBERT P. ALMAZAN: Hello my name is Dr. Elbert P. Almazan.And I am an Associate Professor of Sociologyat Central Michigan University at Mount PleasantMichigan in the United States.I will be covering the following points-- a discussionof descriptive statistics, a discussionof inferential statistics, an exampleof a descriptive statistic, an example

• 00:33

DR. ELBERT P. ALMAZAN [continued]: of an inferential statistic.Statistics is the study of variation.Social statistics is the study of variationin the social world.Variables in the social sciences are social characteristicsthat have variation such as gender, race, and income.In examining variation, social scientists

• 00:53

DR. ELBERT P. ALMAZAN [continued]: use descriptive statistics and inferential statistics.Descriptive statistics are statistics methodsthat organize and summarize quantitative data.Inferential statistics are statistics methodsthat analyze a sample which is a subset of a populationto make inferences and predictions about a population.

• 01:19

DR. ELBERT P. ALMAZAN [continued]: Descriptive statistics generally fallinto three general methods.Descriptive statistics that organizedata such as frequency distribution tables, barcharts, and pie charts.Descriptive statistics that summarize databy identifying middle values are measures of central tendency.These statistics include mean, median, and mode.

• 01:41

DR. ELBERT P. ALMAZAN [continued]: Descriptive statistics that summarize variationare measures of variation.These statistics include range, variance,and standard deviation.Inferential statistics in the social sciencesrefer to many statistics tests using samplesto describe the social characteristics of populations.

• 02:03

DR. ELBERT P. ALMAZAN [continued]: These tests include a t-test, analysis of variance,or chi-square.To illustrate an example of a descriptive statistic,let's say I conducted a survey and obtaina sample of 300 adult women and 300 adult men

• 02:24

DR. ELBERT P. ALMAZAN [continued]: from the United States.The social characteristics of the 600 survey participantsare representative of the social characteristicsof approximately 250 million adults in the United States.I'm curious to know the mean income of womenand the mean income of men of my sample.Mean is a descriptive statistic.Calculating the mean separately for women and men,

• 02:45

DR. ELBERT P. ALMAZAN [continued]: I find that the average income for men is $50,000,and that the average income for women is$48,000.The men's mean income is \$2,000 higherthan the women's mean income in my sample.According to my sample, men on averagemake more money than women.While my sample of 300 women and 300 menshows the mean income for women is

• 03:06

DR. ELBERT P. ALMAZAN [continued]: lower than the mean income for men,I am now curious on whether the mean incomes and genderdifference in income in my sampleexists in the entire United States population.I conducted a t-test, which is an inferential statistic.A null hypothesis is set up so that gender is notrelated to income in the United Statesby stating that the gender difference in income is zero.

• 03:29

DR. ELBERT P. ALMAZAN [continued]: A t-test produces a probability valuecalled a p-value of the likelihoodthat the null hypothesis that gender is notrelated to income in the United States population.Using a t-test, the result of the t-testreveals the probability that the gender difference in incomeis zero in the United States is around 0.01%, which

• 03:51

DR. ELBERT P. ALMAZAN [continued]: is an extremely low probability that the null hypothesis istrue.In the social sciences, we generallyreject null hypotheses when their p-valuesare less than 5%.In this example, I reject the null hypothesis.When the null hypotheses are rejected,results are considered statistically significant.I can say with strong confidence that a gender difference

• 04:13

DR. ELBERT P. ALMAZAN [continued]: does exist in the United States population.In summary, when social sciences use statistics,they use descriptive statistics and inferential statistics.To review again, descriptive statisticsorganize and summarize data and inferential statisticsanalyze samples to make inferences and predictions

• 04:36

DR. ELBERT P. ALMAZAN [continued]: about populations.

### Video Info

Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd

Publication Year: 2017

Video Type:Tutorial

Keywords:

### Segment Info

Segment Num.: 1

Persons Discussed:

Events Discussed:

Keywords:

## Abstract

Dr. Elbert P. Almazan presents an overview of descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics organize and summarize data. Inferential statistics can be used to explain how social characteristics connect with observed data.