SOCY 211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Unimodality, Central Tendency, Descriptive Statistics

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Social Sci, Edu and Soc Work - Sociology
• Course: SOCY 211
• Professor: Carl Keane

Document Summary

One of the first things a researcher will do is organize the data the research yields. We looked at proportions, rates and ratios. Percentage change- from time one to time two. This is often used to show how certain groups have increased or decreased over time. This is informative but we have to be careful when we interpret the number- you have to look beyond just the final percentage that you obtain. You can show data in tables, bar graphs, pie graphs. Stem and leaf plots are barely used *won"t be on the test* You begin with an examination of the individual measurements. Measures of central tendency- useful way to describe a group as a whole with a single number that represents what is average or what is typical in the course. It is generally located towards the centre of the distribution. Three measures of central tendency- mode, median and mean. Mode (mo)- most typical/frequent/common score in a distribution.