frequency distributions
Discussion#1
Minitab Express is a very helpful descriptive statistics tool that can be used in research to calculate and provide outcomes pertaining to the research data gathered. According to Divisi, Leonardo, Zaccagna, & Crisci (2017), statistical concepts such as the mean, median, and mode along with frequency distributions can be graphed and further explained. The mean, median, and mode are known as the measures of central tendency. The mean is the average, the median is the numerical data in the exact middle, the mode is a value that occurs most frequently, and the range is the distance between the highest and lowest value (“Measures of Central Tendency,” n.d.). When a research study is supported by numerical evidence, it proves validity and receives recognition by the community (Divisi et al., 2017).
Using Minitab Express was an interesting experience. I was very thankful to know that there is a program that can assist with the statistical analysis of data. I honestly knew nothing about this until I entered week 9 of this class. It is fascinating to know that once the data is entered, graphs can be made, measures of central tendencies found, and an explanation given. According to Connor & Johnson (2017), descriptive statistics summarize, analyze, and describe data in ways that make the information easier to understand.
When evaluating the information given in the discussion, with different ages and levels of mathematical anxiety, I found that the mean age was 36.2 and the median was 33.5 with a standard deviation was 11.232. The mean number of individuals that felt uneasy was 3.7 with a standard deviation of 1.3018 and the median 4.0. These statistical analyses were completed for each level of mathematical anxiety. According to Niles (n.d.), the closer the standard deviation is to the mean, the more clustered the data is surrounding the mean. When examining the anxiety category of feeling afraid, the mean was 3.55 and the standard deviation 1.1459. The standard deviation in the category of afraid was the lowest meaning that the data in this category was clustered closest to its mean. When evaluating the mean of each category, the category with the highest mean was uneasy and the lowest mean score was found in the category of feeling worried.
Discussion Question Part 2
I plan on learning more about descriptive statistical analysis and utilizing the Minitab Express program through practice. It is important to understand the mean, median, and mode along with frequency distribution and other statistical concepts (Divisi et al., 2017). I believe that Minitab Express and other statistical analysis programs will allow the researcher to further their knowledge on the data collected by assisting in providing graphs and statistical analyses. Testing the Minitab Express program furthered my knowledge of understanding data. It was informative to have hands on experience and the ability to view the results with explanations. If becoming proficient in descriptive statistical analysis becomes part of my everyday routine, I would take a class to better understand the functions of the different programs.
Discussion #2
Excel descriptive statistics is an excellent tool for organizing data analysis research. Excel can provide a more efficient way to demonstrate the data analysis skills component of the research process (DiMaria-Ghalili & Ostrow, 2009). In order to organize the information, there are columns and rows present on the spread sheet. The excel program can perform several statistical functions including charts, graphs, and equations to help determine data in research studies.
In the beginning I thought the descriptive statistics was too complicated. Once I got the techniques my experience running descriptive statistics was smooth. This is easy to analyses the measure reflects math anxiety and the study variables. The data shows that mean of age was 36.2 with the use of descriptive statistics. I could plug the given information and able to make two simple histograms of two different variables such as histogram of cringe and histogram of uneasy.
I would like to learn more about excel and more specialized statistical software packages include SPSSs and SASas. It is important to learn more informatics skills in statistics. The information I learned about excel descriptive statistics will be very useful in future analysis of research data. There are variety of methods, such as correlations, regressions, two sample analysis and probability distributions, are available in this soft ware to analysis the data. This is very relevant in future research data analysis. Choosing appropriate statistical tests and performing basic statistical analysis and interpretations output correctly are all possible with Excel (DiMaria-Ghalili & Ostrow, 2009).