ABSTRACT
Once the observations of the variables in a hypothesis have been made and assembled into a data set, the next step in the research process is to analyze those data in order to draw conclusions about the hypothesis. However, the bits of data are often numerous indeed. This is particularly true in the social sciences, where we may have survey results on dozens of questions from hundreds or even thousands of respondents. To look over such a vast array of data to “see” what is there would be a very difficult task. In order to evaluate our data and determine what patterns are present, we need statistics.
