statistics assignment help

statistics assignment help

The Importance of Statistics in Decision Making

1. Introduction to Statistics

The clue is in the name: “Statistics” is a science that helps us make decisions based on data. In this case, the data are numbers. In everyday life, though, many people make decisions by consulting data – and at the moment, you see examples of this every day on the news. To put it simply, the science of statistics is the study of learning from data. It helps us understand the world, because it gives us the tools to design studies, to gather data, and to use data intelligently. Thanks to statistics, we can look at a random sample of a larger population and come to general conclusions, we can design studies that will give the most reliable results, and we can use that data to make decisions that will have a real impact. So, throughout the rest of this course, we’re going to learn some basic techniques in statistics that will help us use data to make some more informed decisions. Even if you haven’t realized it so far, we actually use data and the principles of statistics all the time. For instance, if you played a game of chance like roulette and bet on your age, you gave in to conjecture and instincts rather than logic or maximizing your potential return. However, if you bet on red on the roulette table and were asked why you made such a decision – and you said that it occurred 8 times in a row and so therefore it won’t come up again – that would be a fallacious judgment as it can happen and the previous results have no effect on the future. But if you decided to bet based on which has less occurrences out of red or black in the past 5000 spins, then that’s probability and you’re going by some sort of statistical logic for reasoning. I hope you’re beginning to see that, in an age where we’re overwhelmed by data from every conceivable direction, statistical skills are essential to make that data work for us – to sift through it, find the most relevant parts and use it to make defensible, objective judgments, no matter the field of study. In short, the reason for becoming familiar with statistics is that it can help to enlighten us about the validity of the information we come across in the world, as well as giving a solid grounding for decision making. Even if you never need to type a single formula into a computer or bring out a calculator, the ability to interpret and critically appraise numbers is an invaluable life skill. Try typing “percentage of” into a search engine and you will get a thousand suggestions – obviously, using statistics is far too varied and complicated a subject to be encapsulated by these, but even if you didn’t have a digital tool to help calculate percentages, the ability to decipher and make use of that information is incredibly important. Of course, a good foundation in statistics can be the beginning of a career in a wide and varied field, including economics, sociology, politics, psychology, marketing, genetics, sports, data analysis and many more too numerous to list here. And the demand for individuals with these credentials is on the rise. With the digitalization and the subsequent rapid control of companies and services, the data is more numerous and dynamic than ever and needs to be utilized correctly in today’s information age. Also, the massive leaps in the power of technology, whether in the form of bigger and better computers to the access and capabilities of artificial intelligence, have facilitated and made possible the harvesting of vast and complex amounts of information about, well, everything. So a working knowledge of statistics in today’s world seems a little like being able to read and write at a basic level circa 100 years ago – a skillset that will be invaluable for generations. Even the national curriculum in the UK has accommodated the rise in importance of statistics; since September 2014, a specific course of study in that field has been implemented into the mathematics curriculum from Key Stage 3 to GCSE.

2. Types of Statistics

Descriptive statistics allow us to summarize and describe the variables in a data set. This gives you a more detailed look at the data, and it allows you to actually see what the data is trying to tell you. Instead of just presenting raw data, you can create frequency distributions and histograms to get a better picture. A frequency distribution shows the number of data points that fall within specified intervals. A histogram is a visual representation of the frequency distribution, and it shows the relationship between two sets of data. Descriptive statistics do exactly what their name suggests: they “describe,” or summarize, raw data and make it something that is interpretable. For example, consider the raw data on the weight of adult dogs. This raw data is not much use to anyone. However, with descriptive statistics, we can better understand our data and use it to its full potential. We could create a frequency distribution and a histogram to show the weight of adult dogs. This would give us a quick and easy way to see the most common dog weight. If we have two much larger and much smaller weights outliers, we would never have known were such a problem, we can easily spot them. As well as this, being able to summarize a large data set and get the most important information saves time and helps when we are faced with dry, numbers and figures.

3. Applications of Statistics in Decision Making

Statistics can be used to make decisions at all levels of life. For instance, employers use statistics to assess the performance of their employees. The employees who have higher statistics on the board, including high sales or perhaps the highest number of customers, are rewarded or motivated in a more special way. In addition, business people use statistics to assess the feasibility of a business and make decisions. In the world today, statistics has been at the core of nearly all professional areas. The managers in any organization use statistics when selecting the best alternative in solving problems. In everyday activities, weather forecasters use statistical data to provide information on the weather. Doctors employ statistics in the diagnosis of a disease, chemical engineers use statistics in the production of chemicals, and teachers use statistical methods to assess the progress of their students. In simple words, it’s very difficult to point out any professional field where statistics is not applicable. One of the main functions of statistics is to provide us with a better understanding of a phenomenon. When deciding upon which statistics to use in making a particular decision, one of the ways in which a choice can be made is “If there are criticizable alternatives or different chances are held, a decision should not be made until it has been ascertained which chance is the actual one.” This is called the Expected Value Enquiry. The expected value of a particular decision is a numerical measure of the chance it has of being successful. When a decision has been made, in the light of the information obtained from the statistical enquiry, the decision can be criticized on the basis of the chance(s) that were involved. This will provide a measure as to how it can be improved using different data. There is much debate about whether things like gambling and choice, behavior have been understood. However, it is true that most decisions will come from the work of some statistician!

4. Challenges in Interpreting Statistics

Although there are many challenges in interpreting statistics, taking time to understand statistics is the first step to be statistically literate. Learning statistics helps to develop analytical skills and critical thinking. Besides, modern technologies have been developed to help people understand statistics easily. For example, there are many online resources available for learning statistics at different levels. And most of these resources are using interactive tools to demonstrate statistical facts, such as “Seeing Theory” and “Gapminder”. By having a deeper understanding of statistics, it helps us make a better judgment when we are faced with statistical results.

On the other hand, it is more dangerous when someone uses statistics intentionally to mislead the audience, as the audience normally do not have sufficient ability to challenge the statistical conclusions. However, being skeptical doesn’t mean we should automatically reject the statistical results. It is necessary to have a balance between skepticism and faith. It really depends on whether the data and the statistics are in agreement. If both support the conclusion, then the conclusion should have stronger support. Also, if a conclusion is really important for us, then further investigation should be carried out.

Last but not least, statistics can be used to mislead the audience, and it is very powerful. People say “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” The quote is saying that a clever person can use statistics in a way that is to his advantage. In the real world, there are many examples showing the misuse of statistics leading to absurd conclusions. For instance, a survey done in China on which day of a week is worst, the survey result shows that the worst day is “tomorrow”. Or in the USA, it is found that the number of people who drowned falling into a pool is positively correlated with films Nicolas Cage appeared in. These examples make people feel skeptical of statistical results, and they may lose faith in statistics as a scientific method of making inferences.

The challenges in interpreting statistics start from its data, as the way of collecting data has a huge impact on the final statistical result. Biased data can lead to false conclusions. For researchers and scientists, they should always be careful with the selection of sampling method and eliminate the time and money factors that push them to use bad data. Another great challenge is the widespread and advance of technology. A quick search on the internet for help on using statistical tools would surely return thousands of results. In this era of information overflow, people tend to trust the tools without knowing how the tools work. For example, the statistical software – SPSS and Minitab – are widely used in data analysis. However, many users are actually not capable of using these tools without basic knowledge of statistical language. As a result, we can see different standards for the same statistical work. When a researcher presents a statistical conclusion for a particular matter, people would have doubts on it if the researcher uses a statistical standard that the audience think is not proper. This casts a shadow over the utility of statistics on decision making in many areas.

Statistics can be very helpful in providing a powerful interpretation of reality, but they can also be used to distort our understanding. In the world of big data, there is a significant increase in using statistics to make intelligent decisions. There is a term called big data statistics, which implies that the statistics itself is big. However, big data statistics is very different from traditional statistics. When talking about big data statistics, we are actually focusing on how to extract meaningful information from huge volumes of data and how to present that information to others. Traditional statistics emphasizes how to collect data, analyze data, and use data to make a conclusion. This kind of statistics has been widely used in quality control, business, agriculture, and decision making.

5. Conclusion: Leveraging Statistics for Informed Decisions

If statistics were just a subject that students study for their grades, it wouldn’t be important to have statistics. But statistics is such a powerful and popular field of study these days. Why is it so significant? Because it helps us understand the world. We can use statistics for decision-making in any area of life. Assume that you want to compare the wellness of two kinds of fish in a pond. If you catch 2 fish from the pond and test 1 fish and get the wellness value, you could say that the first fish is sicker than the second one. But this comparison is not reliable because you only have 1 data for the first fish. Maybe the first fish is very sick but you are just unfortunately picking a very healthy fish that looks normal than the normal one. If you catch 50 fish from the pond and get the wellness value for 25 times, you can then compare the two kinds of fish much more effectively. If you are making a personal decision and you feel ok to assume the risk and consequence of making the wrong decision, you may not need statistics. But if not, statistics is very important for you because by using statistics, you can study the details, the similar cases, the tentative solutions, the living evidence, and the possible risks, even if it is not an absolute promise for a perfect all-the-time correct answer. By the help of your research and study in statistics, you can attack and solve any of the situations that you feel the information is not enough or the decision is too tough with the relieved feeling. So the conclusion is that we should embrace the power of statistics. We should use statistics to make an informed decision. Always try to get and study the living evidence with the most details as possible in order to get the best result. Using statistics for your study, your research, and your projects will lead you to the most beneficial and the most satisfying decision. We can make our lives better, our country stronger, and our world a more incredible place to live.