ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the basic terms and concepts that are used when doing any kind of statistical analysis. It discusses variable types and levels that are critical to know before any test can be done. The chapter introduces measures of central tendency and measures of variability or dispersion. Variables can have multiple values or levels. Central tendency describes typical for the values for a variable; that is, it is the central point in the distribution of values in the data. Dispersion is how much variation gets within the data. Both of these are important measures to see patterns. Measures of central tendency tell us the most typical score for a dataset. There are three types such as mode, median, and mean. Measures of variability and dispersion only work with interval scale type data. The chapter also shows how to organize your data in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and how to access descriptive statistical results.
