BASIC CONCEPTS IN STATISTICS

1. Statistics

 Statistics, as a subject, can be define as the study of collection, organization, summarization, analysis of data,
and the decision-making about the body of data called population based on only a representative part of the data
called sample. (Islam and Al-Shiha, 2018)

Likewise, Lane et. al expounded that statistics is also known as statistical analysis, or statistical inference. It is a
field of study concerned with summarizing data, interpreting data, and making decisions based on data.

Another definition of Statistics according to Bian is that it is a bunch of mathematics used to summarize,
analyze, and interpret a group of numbers or observations. He added also that it is a tool. 

2. Processes in Statistics

1. COLLECTION of DATA  It is the process of gathering and obtaining numerical and categorical data
2. TABULATION of DATA It is a process which involves summarizing of numerical data in textual, tabular or
graphical form
3. ANALYSIS of DATA It is the process of extracting from the given data relevant information from which
numerical descriptions can be formulated.
4. INTERPRETATION of DATA  It refers to the process of making or drawing conclusions based on the analyzed
data

               
3. Divisions of Statistics

Descriptive statistics is use to describe what is going on in a population or data set. It encompasses
summarizing the data already collected. Moreover, this is considered as the first part statistical analysis for most
statisticians. In here, you will just provide a summary description of the sample of your study by the use of
graphs, percentages and/or by the use of the central tendency.

          To illustrate:

 In a hospital, the medical imaging laboratory in-charge records the number of patients they cater in a week for
CT scan, MRI, X-ray and Ultrasound. His records show that 52% of their patient has undergone X-ray
examination, 21% CT scan, 23% Ultrasound and the rest seeks MRI examination.

 The above example, used percentage in describing the results of a week record of examination. Apart from this,
we can also use graphical ways in presenting our summary description of the subject of our study. Another
important tools used in descriptive statistics are the measures of central tendency (mean, median or the mode)
and the measures of dispersion (range, variance, standard deviation and the like)

 Conversely, inferential statistics allows scientists/researchers to take findings from a sample group and

 For instance, a researcher wants to determine the effect of over exposing patients to radiation to their health. In
this particular instance, a researcher may hypothesized that overexposing may lead to serious illness among
patient. This hypothesis will be validated whether or not if it is true or not using the necessary tools in
hypothesis testing

             
4. Some Common Terms in Statistics

Population: This idea refers to the totality of the subject in a study.  Moreover, it refers to all the members of
group about which one wants to draw conclusions. For instance, you are conducting a study on the level of
preparedness among first year college students of MCNP. In here, your population is the whole First Year
College students enrolled in any medical courses of MCNP. 

Sample: This term refers to the parts of the group where you want to draw inference. In other definition, it is the
subset of the population taken into consideration for analysis. From the above example, if you consider only the
students enrolled in the BS Radiologic Technology students as your main respondents then they will be
considered as the sample of your study.

Variables: This refers to any conditions, attributes or characteristics of any item or any individual that will be
analyzed using any statistical tools. It is denoted by letter, usually “x”, or any symbol for that matter. This
information is not only something that we measure, but also something that we can manipulate and something
we can control for. Examples are gender, the household income of the citizens who voted in the last presidential
election, the publishing category (hardcover, trade paperback, mass-market paperback, textbook) of a book, the
number of varieties of a brand of cereal. A variable may be a univariate or bivariate. A univariate variable is
any information using a single data only. Let say you want to find the average age of the students in a certain
class, and the average age or the single value age that re-presents the class is considered a univariate data.
A bivariate variable on the other hand, are the variables that we examines relationship between two variables.
Say for instance we want to determine whether socio-economic status and the academic performance of the
students.  In this case, we are working with bivariate variables (socio-economic status and academic
performance)

In connection to the above example, another classification of variables is the independent and the dependent
variables. Independent variables or the explanatory variables are that information that can stand alone without
the other information. The independent variable for the given example is the socio-economic status of the
students. This will explain whether the performance of the students based from their families’ socio-economic
status. Meanwhile, dependent variables or conclusion variables are those that require the help of other variables
in order to be explain. With this, the variable academic performance of the students from the above example is
considered as dependent variable. Generally, when we talked of independent and dependent variables, we say
that independent variables causes change in the dependent variables. That is, socio-economic status of the
students causes change in their academic performance.  

5. Level of Measurement Variables:

 Measurement variables speak about the numerical value associated in it. This refers to the amount of something
or the value of something in terms of “number”. Scales of measurement for this matter is the way in which
variables/numbers are defined and categorized. The following are the four scales or levels of measurement.

a.    Nominal:  Often called the categorical variable where there is no natural ordering of the data in a category.
Like when we categorized respondents of a survey into the male or female groups respectively.

b.    Ordinal: This level data are categorized or group but order of groupings will now be considered. Example
for this level is the year level of the students or IQ level of students.
c.    Interval: This scale is interpreted, as the distance between attributes does not have any meaning. A scale,
which represents quantity and has equal units but for which zero represents simply an additional point of
measurement is an interval scale. The Fahrenheit scale is a clear example of the interval scale of measurement.
Thus, 60 degree Fahrenheit or -10 degrees Fahrenheit are interval data. Measurement of Sea Level is another
example of an interval scale. With each of these scales, there is direct, measurable quantity with equality of
units. In addition, zero does not represent the absolute lowest value. Rather, it is point on the scale with
numbers both above and below it (for example, -10 degrees Fahrenheit).

d.    Ratio: Data that is measured using the ratio scale takes care of the ratio problem and gives you the most
information. Ratio scale data is like interval scale data, but it has a 0 point and ratios can be calculated. You will
not have a negative value in ratio scale data. For instance, the score of students in their examinations. No
students will ever get any negative score