Topic-Introduction

Jon Kettenring, President of the American Statistics Association defines statistics "as the science of learning from data. Statistics is essential for the proper running of government, central to decision making in industry, and a core component of modern educational curricula at all levels."

Learning Outcomes:

After having completed this topic you should be able to:

explain what is statistics

discuss the role of mathematics in learning statistics

differentiate between descriptive and inferential statistics

explain the different between types of variables

American Heritage Dictionary® defines statistics as: "The mathematics of the collection, organization, and interpretation of numerical data, especially the analysis of population characteristics by inference from sampling."

What is Statistics?

SELF-CHECK

a) Using the definitions above, give your definition of statistics.

b) Why do you think individuals fear statistics?

c) How can this fear be overcomed?

The Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary® definition is: "A branch of mathematics dealing with the collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of masses of numerical data"..

I have never been good in

mathematics ! ! ! !

I have had graduate students who say to me that they would like to do research using a "qualitative" approach. When I ask them why; the reply is because it does not involve statistics.

The word "mathematics" is mentioned in two definitions of statistics above while "science" is stated in the other definition. Both mathematics and science scare some students. These students lament that they are from the humanities and the social sciences and hence are weak in mathematics. Being terrified of mathematics does not just happen overnight. Chances are that you may have had bad experiences with mathematics in earlier years (Kranzler, 2007).

Fear of mathematics can lead to a self-defeating behaviour which may affect attitudes towards statistics. In most cases, the fear of mathematics is due to one's irrational beliefs. Just because you had difficulty in the past, does not mean that you will always have difficulty with quantitative subjects. You have gotten this far in your education and doing this e-course in statistics and it is not likely that you are an incapable person.

You have to convince yourself that statistics is not a difficult subject and you need not have to worry about the mathematics involved. Identify your irrational beliefs and thoughts about statistics. Are you telling yourself: "I'll never be any good in statistics", 'I'm a loser when it comes to anything dealing with figures", "What will other students think of me if I do badly".

For each of these irrational beliefs about your abilities, ask yourself what evidence is there to suggest that "you will never be good in statistics" or that "you are lousy in mathematics". When you do that, you will begin to replace your irrational beliefs with positive thoughts and you will feel better. You will realise that your earlier beliefs about statistics are the cause of your unpleasant emotions. Everytime you begin to feel anxious or emotionally upset, dispute or question your irrational beliefs which may help you overcome your initial fears.

Keeping this in mind that I have designed this e-course by trying to present statistics in a form that appeals to those who fear mathematics. Since I am emphasising the applied aspects of statistics, mathematical fomulas have been kept to a minimal. With the aid of SPSS, the need to know the intracacies of mathematical fomulas has been minimised.

Do you need to be good in mathematics to understand statistics?