{"id":5427,"date":"2013-02-22T15:59:50","date_gmt":"2013-02-22T15:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/?p=5427"},"modified":"2014-12-02T08:27:05","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T08:27:05","slug":"statistics-how-to-use-frequency-distributions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/2013\/02\/22\/statistics-how-to-use-frequency-distributions\/","title":{"rendered":"Statistics:  How to Use Frequency Distributions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Overview:\u00a0 What Is A Frequency Distribution?<\/b><br \/>\nA frequency distribution can yield a lot of information about the results of an experiment or survey, even before any more complex statistical analysis is done.\u00a0 In its simplest form, a frequency distribution is just an organized tally of how many times an event occurs.\u00a0 It can be stated as a number or as a percentage.\u00a0 For example, suppose a biologist is studying types of aquatic plants that grow in a particular wetlands area.\u00a0 Knowing the numbers of different species, as well as the density of plants per square foot, will help make decisions about the types of nutrients that are available to support birds, fish, and other animals that are part of the ecosystem.<\/p>\n<p><b>Should a Frequency Distribution Be Grouped or Ungrouped?<\/b><br \/>\nThe highest value, the lowest value, and the most frequent occurrence (the mode) are usually the first parts of the pattern to appear.\u00a0 If the difference between the highest and lowest score is small, or if all the values are close together, then it might be easy to see the pattern in the data.\u00a0 That is not often what happens, however.\u00a0 Usually, the data are more spread out, and then it is more useful to group them into intervals that are all the same size.\u00a0 \u00a0The next step is often to graph them by frequency or in a bar graph to visualize the relationships.\u00a0 A stem-and-leaf display is another way to plot raw data in a frequency distribution.<\/p>\n<p><b>What Is the Shape of the Frequency Distribution?<\/b><br \/>\nGraphing the data from the frequency distribution will also allow the researcher to see the shape of the data.\u00a0 While there are some distributions that are symmetrical (for example, the normal curve), most are not.\u00a0 Most are skewed toward one end or another, and some curves will have one, two, or even three waves where some scores are more frequent than others.\u00a0 Researchers can then make decisions about what further statistical tests to use.<\/p>\n<p><b>What Is the Scale of Measurement Used?<\/b><br \/>\nIf the measurement is just categorical, it is the nominal scale of measurement.\u00a0 One of the first questions in any survey is, &#8220;Are you male or female?&#8217; \u00a0If the measure involves ranking, it is ordinal.\u00a0 For example, in the alternative fuel survey, people were asked if they drove small, medium, or large cars.\u00a0 Other measurements at the interval or ratio scales involve values that are beyond counting or numerical ranking, such as temperature, time, length, or weight.<\/p>\n<p><b>Statistical Tests on Frequency Alone<\/b><br \/>\nOne of the most common statistical tests used when the measurement is categorical or ordinal is the chi square test.\u00a0 It tests whether or not there is a relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable, and is easily calculated by hand (or in seconds with a computer).\u00a0 It is often used with data from surveys, as most of the responses are either counted or ranked.<\/p>\n<p>Interested in finding affordable <a href=\"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/tutoring-prices-rates-costs\/\">tutoring rates<\/a> for your child&#8217;s academic needs? Learn more about how we are assisting thousands of students each academic year.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"tutorOrange\">SchoolTutoring Academy<\/span> is the premier educational services company for K-12 and college students. We offer tutoring programs for students in K-12, AP classes, and college. To learn more about how we help parents and students in Iowa City, IA visit: <a href=\"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/tutoring-in-iowa-city-iowa\/\">Tutoring in Iowa City, IA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview:\u00a0 What Is A Frequency Distribution? A frequency distribution can yield a lot of information about the results of an experiment or survey, even before any more complex statistical analysis is done.\u00a0 In its simplest form, a frequency distribution is just an organized tally of how many times an event occurs.\u00a0 It can be stated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[271,699,1729,1804],"class_list":["post-5427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-statistics-2","tag-chi-square","tag-frequency-distributions","tag-statistics","tag-tally"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}