Chapter 4: Descriptive Statistics

Descriptive statistics are a graphical or numerical summary of data. Like an arithmetic mean, a line chart is a descriptive statistic. Although frequency tables and graphs are useful tools for summarizing and displaying data, some calculations and considerations are also required. After the data are collected, their central tendency, dispersion, skewness, and steepness are investigated.

Most descriptive statistics are simple and easily understandable. What is important, however, is the conclusions and interpretations drawn from these statistics. It is possible to obtain these statistics in SPSS in different ways. The data set in Table 3.8 in the third section will be used in the explanations here.