COMM 2301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Descriptive Statistics, Central Tendency, Long And Short Scales

• School: Northeastern University
• Department: Communication Studies
• Course: COMM 2301
• Professor: Michael A.Tannebaum

Document Summary

Goal of social science: better understand the social world and people who inhabit it. Measurement is key component of social science. Scientists measure the variables with which they are working. Simply categories that can"t be ordered from least to greatest or greatest to least. Categories that can be ordered from least to greatest or vice versa, but the distance between categories is not even or proportionate. Use a standardized scale to measure responses. Assume that the distance between response categories is proportionate/even. I think president obama is an effective leader. Require that the respondent fill in a number to answer the question. Two respondents can be compared to create a ratio. How old are you ______ (please fill in a number) Descriptive statistics include measures of central tendency and measures of variability. Measures of central tendency and measures of variability are used to describe data. Can be calculated for scale and ratio variables.