Descriptive Statistics: Summarizing Research Data Into Graphs & Charts - Essay Sample

Introduction

Descriptive statistics refers to the branch of statistics that recommends how to summarize research data into figures, tables, charts, and graphs. Most importantly, a summary of the research goals and measurement scale is ideal before conducting the descriptive analyses. The charts and tables majorly aim at the provision of timely information on the results obtained from particular investigations (Bryman, 2017). Furthermore, the graphs also show the trends of relationships between the variables involved in the research. Descriptive statistics help in the management of data and present them in a summary table for a more straightforward analysis.

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The various types of descriptive statistics include the measure of central tendency and measure of dispersion. The measures of central tendency majorly focus on measuring the average value of the samples in a particular research data set (Bryman, 2017). These averages could be mathematical averages or rather positional averages. The arithmetic averages are the commonly used measure of central tendency. They are usually obtained through the addition of all the items in a given series and dividing with the total number of the items. However, the positional average includes the mode and median (Brannen, 2017). The mode, for instance, indicates the higher frequency in a given series.

On the contrary, the measure of the dispersion of data is often used to elaborate further on the data findings. In most cases, the variance and standard deviation are used to measure distribution. Again, the range could be adopted to help the determination of the difference between the highest and the lowest value within a given data set (Brannen, 2017). The variation of a given set of data from the mean value is described as the standard deviation. In descriptive statistics, qualitative variables relate to the values that are majorly names or labels; however, quantitative variables denote the measurable amount or quality of a particular variable (Rendon-Macias et al., 2016).

Conclusion

In conclusion, descriptive statistics deals with summarizing of data in the form of tables, graphs and figures that show the relationships between variables. The measure of central tendency and dispersion are some of the significant forms of descriptive statistics. Descriptive statistics involve the use of both qualitative and quantitative variables.

References

Brannen, J. (2017). Combining qualitative and quantitative approaches: an overview. In Mixing methods: Qualitative and quantitative research (pp. 3-37). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315248813/chapters/10.4324/9781315248813-1

Bryman, A. (2017). Quantitative and qualitative research: further reflections on their integration. In Mixing methods: Qualitative and quantitative research (pp. 57-78). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315248813/chapters/10.4324/9781315248813-3

Rendon-Macias, M. E., Villasis-Keever, M. A., & Miranda-Novales, M. G. (2016). Descriptive statistics. Revista Alergia de Mexico, 63(4). https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Miguel_Villasis-Keever/publication/322345711_Estadistica_descriptiva/links/5a577904a6fdcc30f86f279a/Estadistica-descriptiva.pdf