ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a background framework with the purpose and brief history of descriptive statistics. It also goes into the mechanics (including the calculation) of descriptive statistics. These operations include central tendency and dispersion. The chapter then talks about various types of data visualization—a data matrix, frequency table, cross tabulation, and informative graphs. The chapter then provides a step-by-step guide on how to run descriptive statistics in SPSS and R. The chapter concludes with two planning research examples.
