Uses and Abuses of

4 Statistics
Contents

4.1 Introduction to Statistics

4.2 Statistical Investigations

 4 Uses and Abuses of Statistics
4.1 Introduction to Statistics
A. Basic Concepts of Statistics

Statistics is a branch of mathematics that involves collecting, organizing,

presenting, analysing and interpreting data. It plays an important role in
education, business and finance, public administration and socio-economic
studies.

With the help of statistics, people can make more effective decisions and
manage their work more efficiently.

In general, statistics involves collection, representation, analysis and

interpretation of numerial information. In our daily life, we receive
Content statistical information mostly from the media.

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 4 Uses and Abuses of Statistics
4.1 Introduction to Statistics

In this chapter, we will summarize the work of statistics can be summerized

in the following three ways:

1. Collecting the data, for example:

questionnaires, interviews

2. Organizing and presenting the data, for We can present the data
example, by bar chart, pie chart,
histogram, stem-and-leaf
pie chart, bar chart, frequency distribution table diagram, box-and-
whisker diagram, etc., if
appropriate.
Content 3. Analysing and interpreting the data, for example,
measures of dispersion and central tendency

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 4 Uses and Abuses of Statistics
4.1 Introduction to Statistics
B. Collection of Data
(a) Nature of data
In statistics, data are classified into two main categories: qualitative data and
quantitative data.

- Qualitative data can be separated into different groups and can be

distinguished by some non-numerical characteristics.
- Quantitative data consist of numbers representing counts or
measurements.

Quantitative data can be divided as discrete data and continuous data.

- Discrete data are either a finite number of possible values or a

Content
countable number of possible values.
- Continuous data result from infinitely many possible values that can
be associated with points on a continuous scale.

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 4 Uses and Abuses of Statistics
4.1 Introduction to Statistics

Definition 4.1:

A statistical survey is an activity that collects data for a particular purpose.

Sending questionnaire is a useful way to collect any required information

in a survey.

The steps of sending questionnaires can be summarized as below:

1. Having objectives to conduct 2. Design questionnaires and

a survey. distribute them to the targets

Content
4. Interpret the data and make 3. Collect the questionnaires
decision. and organize the data.

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 4 Uses and Abuses of Statistics
4.1 Introduction to Statistics
C. Sampling Methods

The terms population and sample are commonly used in statistics.

These terms are very core of statistics and we define them as below.

1. A population in statistics refers the entire set of individuals under study.

2. A sample refers to a chosen part of the population.

In many real-life cases, the population is very large or inaccessible. The cost
of collecting data from the whole population is very expensive and time
consuming. Moreover, we can hardly carry out a statistical survey on the
whole population.
Content
There are three methods of sampling: simple random sampling,
systematic sampling and stratified random sampling.

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 4 Uses and Abuses of Statistics
4.1 Introduction to Statistics

(a) Simple Random Sampling

Simple random sampling is a method of selecting a sample such that each

item in the population has an equal chance of being chosen.

In order to use the method of simple random sampling, we should first list
and assign a unique identification number to each item in the population,
then group all the numbers in a table. This number list is called the
sampling frame of the population.

Suppose a population consists of 900 students of a school. If we want to

select a random sample of students from it, we can set a list of the names
of all students and assign a number to each student.
Content
Once a sampling frame is constructed, we can select a sample at random
by one of the following two methods.

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 4 Uses and Abuses of Statistics
4.1 Introduction to Statistics
Method 1: Using the lottery method

For example, we may write down all the numbers on a piece of paper and
then select them from a box at random.

Method 2: Using the random number table

Random number can be obtained in the following ways:

(a) Random number table is often available in statistics reference books.

(b) Using statistical software ‘Winstats’ or spreadsheet to generate

random numbers
Content

(c) In a scientific calculator, press “SHIFT” “RAN” to generate random

numbers

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 4 Uses and Abuses of Statistics
4.1 Introduction to Statistics

When a random number table is generated, the sample is then found by

selecting groups of random numbers. The starting point on the table should
be selected randomly and the number of digits selected depends on the
population size.

Population size Number of random digits

1 - 10 1
1 – 100 2
1 – 1000 3

For example, if we want to choose a sample from 900 students, then three
Content
digits should be chosen.

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 4 Uses and Abuses of Statistics
4.1 Introduction to Statistics
(a) Systematic Sampling

Systematic sampling is a method in which we first select a starting point

randomly, then select every kth (such as 10th or 50th ) item in the population.

For example, if a company wants to conduct a survey of its 1000

employees, it can select every 10th employee and obtain a sample of size
100.
Notes:

1. The starting point of the systematic sampling method can be selected

by the lottery method or using the random number table

1. Systematic sampling method is easier to handle than the simple

Content
random sampling method.

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 4 Uses and Abuses of Statistics
4.1 Introduction to Statistics

(a) Stratified Random Sampling

Stratified random sampling is a sampling method that divides the

population into at least two subgroups (called strata) that share the
same characteristics (such as gender), and then select samples from
each stratum.

Notes :

The stratified sampling method may reflect the characteristics of a

population more accurately than the other two sampling methods

Content

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 4 Uses and Abuses of Statistics
4.2 Statistical Investigations

A. Uses of Statistics

Everyday, there are many statistical reports in the media. Those

reports are presented according to the nature of the data in different
types of graphs, such as
(a) pie chart
(b) broken line graph
(c) histogram / bar chart
(d) stem-and-leaf diagram

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4.2 Statistical Investigations

B. Abuses of Statistics

(a) Using ‘Average’ to Mislead Readers

For example, a company has five cars with prices: $22 000, $33 000, $80
000, $100 000 and $108 000. the manager claims that the average price of
the cars is $68 800. Customers may think that the prices of the cars in this
company are around $70 000, but actually there are only two cars with
prices under $70 000!
The above case shows that an average can be misleading when used to
represent a data set.

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4.2 Statistical Investigations

(b) Misinterpreted Percentage

Sometimes, the statistical information presented in the media is also unclear

or misleading.

For example, the marketing department of a computer software company

asked ten of its customers about the performance of the new software
company asked ten of its customers about the performance of the new
software.

Since nine of ten of the customers said the software was good, the
company claimed that over 90% of the customers were satisfied with the
performance of the software.
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 4 Uses and Abuses of Statistics
4.2 Statistical Investigations
(c) Misrepresentation of Data by Graph
It is common that statistical data can be represented by different graphs
which may give different impressions to readers.

Fig. 4.8 Fig. 4.9 Fig. 4.10

Content
The data represented by the above three graphs are the same but if we
use different scales to draw the graphs, they will give different impressions
to the readers or even mislead them.

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