Raskauskas and Stoltz (2007) asked a group of 84 adolescents about their involvement in traditional and electronic bullying. The researchers defined electronic bullying as “…a means of bullying in which peers use electronics (such as text messages, emails, and defaming Web sites) to taunt, threaten, harass, and/or intimidate a peer” (p. 565). The table below is a frequency table showing the adolescents’ reported incidence of being victims or perpetrators of traditional and electronic bullying.
Using the table below as an example, explain the idea of a frequency table to a person who has never taken a course in statistics.
Explain the general meaning of the pattern of results.
Incidence of Traditional and Electronic Bullying and Victimization (N = 84)
Forms of bullying
N
%
Electronic victims
41
48.8
Text-message victim
27
32.1
Internet victim (websites, chatrooms)
13
15.5
Camera-phone victim
8
9.5
Traditional victims
60
71.4
Physical victim
38
45.2
Teasing victim
50
59.5
Rumors victim
32
38.6
Exclusion victim
30
50
Electronic bullies
18
21.4
Text-message bully
18
21.4
Internet bully
11
13.1
Traditional bullies
54
64.3
Physical bully
29
34.5
Teasing bully
38
45.2
Rumor bully
22
26.2
Exclusion bully
35
41.7
Describe whether each of the following data words best describes descriptive statistics or inferential statistics. Explain your reasoning.
1. Describe:
Infer:
2. Summarize:
Compare the three types of research methods and statistics.
Regarding gun ownership in the United States, data from Gallup polls over a 40-year period show how gun ownership in the United States has changed. The results are described below, with the percentage of Americans who own guns given in each of the 5 decades.
Year
%
1972
43
1982
42
1992
48
2002
40
2012
43
1. Are the percentages reported above an example of descriptive statistics or inferential statistics? Why?
2. Based on the table, how would you describe the changes in gun ownership in the United States over the 40 years shown?
Refer to the Simpson-Southward et al. (2016) article from this week’s electronic readings. Was this an example of inferential statistics and research or descriptive statistics and research? Justify your response.
