What are inferential statistics? What role do inferential statistics play in helping researchers understand variables. In your answer, be sure to discuss random error and sampling error.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Ans: Inferential analysis or inferential statistics provides a deeper understanding of variables because it draws conclusions about the population from the sample at hand. Inferential statistics is the best tool researchers have to make approximate generalizations about the entire population. This type of analysis goes beyond the description of the data available and attempts to draw relationships or associations between two or more variables. Once a relationship is detected between variables, inferential statistics attempts to predict the possibility of applying the same relationship to the entire population of the study. Inferential statistics can also be used to investigate one variable or to conduct univariate analysis. Random error is associated with the type of common mistakes or errors that happen randomly when data are collected or entered in a spreadsheet or during the analysis. This random error is referred as sampling error because it occurs during the process of data collection. In other words, sampling error includes the mistakes that happen randomly during the collection of data either by small mistakes in how the data are reported when collected, mistakes that can happen when the data are entered in the spreadsheet, or even small errors when the data are transformed or recoded during the analysis.