ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 describes the conceptual basis for the normal distribution and highlights its relevance to statistical inference. In addition, the chapter also discusses how the normal distribution can be standardized by converting raw scores to z-scores and how this standardized normal distribution can be used to determine the proportion of scores in any area, or areas, of the normal distribution. Finally, the chapter explains how the areas of the normal distribution can be considered in terms of probabilities and how this can be useful in determining the probability of observing a score within any range of values. The concepts introduced in this chapter are built upon in subsequent chapters.
