Presenting Descriptive Statistics

Abstract

This chapter examines some of the issues raised in the previous chapter concerning demographic information about participants. One of the first steps a researcher takes in the analysis of data is to generate descriptive statistics. Descriptive statistics simply describe the data provided by the participants. This can be contrasted with inferential statistics where data analysis can lead to conclusions about the population under consideration. Descriptive statistics are generated by computer software, such as SPSS, and help the researcher become familiar with the data. The chapter is about reporting descriptive statistics in a quantitative research text.