What is statistics and how can you learn it?

Statistics is used more and more often to study the behavior of people, not only by the social sciences but also by companies. Everyone can learn how to use statistics, even without much knowledge of mathematics and even with fear of statistics. Most important are logical thinking and perseverance.

To first step to using statistical methods is to collect data. Data are collected observations of characteristics of interest. For instance the opinion of 1000 people on whether marihuana should be legal. Data can be obtained through questionnaires, experiments, observations or existing databases.

But statistics aren't only numbers obtained from data. A broader definition of statistics entails all methods to obtain and analyze data.

What is the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics?

Before being able to analyze data, a design is made on how to obtain the data. Next there are two sorts of statistical analyses; descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics summarizes the information obtained from a collection of data, so the data is easier to interpret. Inferential statistics makes predictions with the help of data. Which kind of statistics is used, depends on the goal of the research (summarize or predict).

To understand the differences better, a number of basic terms are important. The subjects are the entities that are observed in a research study, most often people but sometimes families, schools, cities etc. The population is the whole of subjects that you want to study (for instance foreign students). The sample is a limited number of selected subjects on which you will collect data (for instance 100 foreign students from several universities). The ultimate goal is to learn about the population, but because it's impossible to research the entire population, a sample is made.

Descriptive statistics can be used both in case data is available for the entire population and only for the sample. Inferential statistics is only applicable to samples, because predictions for a yet unknown future are made. Hence the definition of inferential statistics is making predictions about a population, based on data gathered from a sample.

The goal of statistics is to learn more about the parameter. The parameter is the numerical summary of the population, or the unknown value that can tell something about the ultimate conditions of the whole. So it's not about the sample but about the population. This is why an important part of inferential statistics is measuring and crediting how representative a sample is.

A population can be real (for instance foreign students) or conceptual (for instance the foreign students that will pass their statistics course this year).

What part does software play in statistics?

Software enables an easy application of complex methods. The most used software for statistics are SPSS, R, SAS and Stata.