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Psych 101: Introductory Psychology Lab |
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Psych 101: Introductory Psychology Lab |
The purpose of this assignment is to get you familiar with using descriptive statistics such as the mean, median and mode. The information summarized may also be very useful when writing the "Subjects" subsection of the Methods section throughout the term.
Using the data collected in class, choose a measure of central tendency to describe each variable. For example, you may choose to summarize the variable "Age" by calculating the mean, while more categorical data like "resident/commuter status" may be best described by describing the range and the mode.
There isn't any one correct answer for each variable. You may choose to use any or all descriptive statistics for each one, if you have a rationale for doing so. We imagine you will find that some variables are difficult to quantify, and may lend themselves better to frequency counts, than calculations of average, etc. For example, it may be difficult to determine the mean for gender.
The results that you turn in should be typed, and in a narrative form. It can be successfully done in a paragraph of a half page or less.
Here's an example of a
strong paper. As each class determined the variables they thought
were important, some of these in the paragraph below may not apply to
your section's data set, or your class may have others not included
in this sample paper.
David G. Myers
Psych 101, Section 06
Davis/Ford
25 June 1998
The demographics for the class represent a diverse sample of Drexel University students. There are 18 people in the class, with the majority of whom are male (mode = 12). Their ages ranged from 19 to 23, with a mean age is 20.5 years. All classes were represented with the median years in college being 2.5. Both residents and commuter students are represented, with the mode of commuters being 15. The raw data for demographic information can be found on Table 1.
(Label the notes you took in class as "Table 1" and with a title... perhaps something like "Raw demographic data for class sample." It's OK if your table is handwritten, just remember to staple it to your paper.)
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Last update: 25 June 1998
