PSYC 200W Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Standard Score, Bar Chart, Frequency Distribution
28 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Descriptive research helps to describe behaviors and characteristics of a given population in a systematic
way.
Survey research:
Most common
Respondents provide information about themselves by filling in questionnaire or answering in
interviews
Cross sectional design - a single group of population is surveyed
Successive independent samples - two or more sample answer questions at different points in
time
Longitudinal/panel survey - a single group of respondents are questioned over time to note
behavioral changes
Demographic research:
Describing and understanding patterns of basic life events such as birth, death, marriage
Epidemiological research:
Study the occurrence of a disease and death in different groups of people
Many illnesses and injuries are affected by people's behavior and lifestyles
Some epidemiological research deals with describing prevalence of psychological disorders
Internet surveys:
Advantages:
oInexpensive
oRecord a person's location and data which helps to save time and cost and also prevents
the participant from making a mistake
oIt also allows researchers to contact participants who are difficult to reach in person
oCan be taken any time of the day, very convenient
Disadvantages:
oLittle control over selection of sample
oPeople who use the internet can be an underrepresentation of the population
oProbability samples cannot be used
Description of data must meet three criteria:
Accuracy: must be summarized accurately
Conciseness: very accurate data can be tough to interpret
Understandability: overly complicated tables and graphs can be confusing and thus, should be
understood by people easily
Numerical data can be summarized through numerical methods or graphical methods
Frequency distribution: table that summarizes raw data by showing how frequently they fall in each
category
Simple frequency distribution: no. of participants who obtained each scores from lowest to
highest. Second column shows frequency of each score
Grouped frequency distribution: frequency of subset of scores. You break the scores into
subsets or class intervals of equal size and then indicate the frequency of scores in each intervals
oRelative frequency: frequency in each class as a proportion of the total scores
o3 features of grouped frequency -
Class intervals are mutually exclusive
Class intervals capture all possible responses
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Descriptive research helps to describe behaviors and characteristics of a given population in a systematic way. Respondents provide information about themselves by filling in questionnaire or answering in interviews. Cross sectional design - a single group of population is surveyed. Successive independent samples - two or more sample answer questions at different points in time. Longitudinal/panel survey - a single group of respondents are questioned over time to note behavioral changes. Describing and understanding patterns of basic life events such as birth, death, marriage. Study the occurrence of a disease and death in different groups of people. Many illnesses and injuries are affected by people"s behavior and lifestyles. Some epidemiological research deals with describing prevalence of psychological disorders. Record a person"s location and data which helps to save time and cost and also prevents the participant from making a mistake o o. It also allows researchers to contact participants who are difficult to reach in person.
