Question.1855 - 1. Provide a summary of course content for chapters 1 - 3. This summary should include key concepts, definitions, and examples as needed. This summary should be between 2 - 3 paragraphs in length. 2. Provide a summary of key concepts and/or chapter materials that have been challenging. This portion of the reflection paper encourages you to thoughtfully engage with the material and point out areas that may have been/continue to be difficult to understand. This summary should be between 1 - 2 paragraphs in length. 3. Provide an example of how material from chapters 1 - 3 can help us understand the social world in which we live. You will want to address the steps to research (i.e. research question, hypothesis etc.) and how these steps help you think about your selected social issue. You can use both sociological and criminal justice related social issues. This example can be based on verified sources (i.e. PEW Research) but this is not required. If you do choose to include sources, you must provide both in-text and reference citations. This example should be between 1 - 2 paragraphs in length.
Answer Below:
Reflection Paper 1 William Pope UNC Pembroke Social Statistics SOC 3600 - 801 Dr. Melanie Escue February 9th, 2024 1) Chapters 1 - 3 have covered the basic concepts of statistics. Chapter 1 discusses about what is statistics and Why use statistics. It also explains the five steps of the research process. It has also covered the different levels of measurement. Nominal Variables are categories that cannot be ranked, and they are the numbers or symbols assigned to the set of categories for classifying the observationsfor example, Race, Gender, and Color. Ordinal variables are ranked from the lowest to the highest, with no equal distances between the categories. They are also used for rating purposes, such as Social status. Interval-ratio variables have equal distances between the categories, and the units are the same in all cases. The ratio scale variables, for example, age and temperature, have natural or true zero points.?? Chapter 2 explains how to organize and Summarize data. There are two ways to manage and summarize data: the frequency distribution and the graphic representation. In frequency distribution, we count the number of data. For instance, consider the population in a given region. In creating a frequency distribution table, we come across various concepts and definitions such as proportions, which means frequency divided by total number, percentages (converting proportion into percentages by multiplying it with 100), frequencies (count of the observations), cumulative frequency distribution (sum of the frequency and all values below each category) and cumulative percentage distribution (sum of the percentages and all values below each category).? With regard to graphical representations, there are five types: Pie charts, bar graphs, histograms, line graphs, and time series charts. In pie Charts, variables sum to 100% of the total frequencies. In Bar graphs, variables form rectangles of equal width proportional to the height of the frequency. In contrast, in histograms, variables form continuous bars of equal width proportional to the height of the frequency. Points display the frequencies of each category and are placed above the midpoint of the category, and a line graph joins them. A time series chart represents the changes in a variable at different points in time (Leon-Guerrero et al., 2020). Chapter 3 discusses the measures of central tendency and variations. Mean is the average of the observations given in a data set; Median is the middle number of the observations, and Mode is the most frequent number. These are the measures of central tendency, whereas the Index of Qualitative Variation, Interquartile Range, Range, variance, and Standard deviations are measures of variability. For nominal variables, the ratio of all distributional differences to all possible distributional differences is known as the Index of Qualitative VarModeon, or IQV. Interquartile Range or IQR is the difference between the lower and upper quartiles, whereas the range is between the lower and higher values. Variance is the average of the Squared distributions from the means, whereas Standard deviation is the square root of the variance.? 2) The two concepts that were most challenging to me were identifying distribution shapes in a graph and selecting appropriate measures of central tendency. A distribution is said to be symmetrical if the Mean, Median, and Mode are all identical. A distribution is Positively skewed if the mean is higher than the Median. Another way of saying it is if the mean is placed right to the Median, it is positively skewed. A distribution is negatively skewed if the mean is left to the Median.? The other concept is how to select an appropriate measure of central tendency. The level of measurement plays a crucial role in choosing the measure of central tendency. If the variables are nominal, the Mode is most appropriate. If the variable is ordinal, the Median is the most suitable, and the Shape of the distribution determines whether it is an Interval- Ratio variable.? 3) The example I selected is " U.S. public divided over whether people convicted of crimes spend too much or too little time in Prison (Gramlich, n.d.)." The research question is whether people convicted of crimes spend too much or too little time in Prison. The Hypothesis states that there is no relationship between conviction and time spent in Prison. According to the survey conducted by Pew Research, 37% have spent the right amount of time in prison, 32% have spent too little time, and 28% have spent too much time (Gramlich, n.d.). Based on the data collected, they have analysed it. This example shows that Pew Research has followed the five steps of the Research Process.? From the example, we can also understand the concepts covered in chapters 1-3 because party, race, and ethnicity categories have differentiated people convicted of crimes spending time in prison. From this, we can determine the frequencies and graphical representations and calculate the measures of central tendency.?? References Gramlich, J. (n.d.).?U.S. public divided over whether people convicted of crimes spend too much or too little time in prison. Pew Research Center. https://pewrsr.ch/3xXrfkg Leon-Guerrero, A., Chava Frankfort-Nachmias, & Davis, G. (2020).?Essentials of Social Statistics for a Diverse Society?(4th ed.). SAGE Publications. ?More Articles From Statistics
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