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Once the researchers have collected the results, they must:
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KEY CONCEPTS
Why Psychologists Use Statistics
From the Laboratory to the Real World
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Chapter One: What is Psychology?
Evaluating the Findings
INTRODUCTION
Once the researchers have collected the results, they must:
- Describe the results;
- Assess how reliable and meaningful they are;
- Explain the meaning of the results.
KEY CONCEPTSWhy Psychologists Use Statistics
From the Laboratory to the Real World
Why Psychologists Use Statistics
INTRODUCTION
Psychologists use descriptive statistics to summarize the data, and inferential statistics to determine how impressive the findings might be.
KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINEDXDescriptive statistics summarize the data:
- Arithmetic mean is the average, and it is often used to represent the scores for each of the experimental and control groups.
- Variance indicates how the scores are spread out around the mean. A wide spread means that the arithmetic mean does not represent the typical score.
XPsychologists use inferential statistics to learn the impressiveness of the findings.
- Significance tests allow the researcher to determine if the results were simply due to chance.
- Statistically significant means that the result was extremely unlikely to have occurred by chance.
LINKS on Statistics
wwwlink: Introduction to descriptive statistics.
wwwlink: Everything you wanted to know about statistics.
GLOSSARY
descriptive statistics arithmetic mean variance inferential statistics statistically significant
From the Laboratory to the Real World
INTRODUCTION
Trying to figure out what the findings really mean.
KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINEDXChoosing the Best Explanation
If several explanations fit the facts equally well, more research will be needed to determine which is the best explanation.
- Cross-sectional studies compares subjects of different ages at the same time.
- Longitudinal studies follow subjects over a long period of time and periodically tests them.
XJudging the Importance of the ResultsA statistically significant result may have no practical importance, while a non significant finding may be worth further exploration.
- Meta analysis is one way to combine the results from many studies to give a clearer picture of how much of an effect a variable has across studies.
GLOSSARY
cross-sectional study longitudinal study meta-analysis
LINKS About Evaluating Findings
- wwwlink: Pitfalls in Evaluating the Findings of research.
Next Topic - Taking Psychology With You.................................Chapter Contents
