SOCIAL STATISTICS (MA 1)

                                                                            SOCIAL STATISTICS

THE CONTENTS OF THE INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

4  Introduction to statistics

4  Definitions

o   General

o   Social

o   Functional

4  Functions of Statistics

4  characteristics of statistics

4  objectives of statistics

4  Importance of Statistics

4  use of statistics in modern sociology

4  Methods  of Statistics

o   Descriptive Statistics

o   Inferential Statistics

o    Population parameter and sample

o   Frequency distribution

4  Conclusion

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL STATISTICS

ORIGIN: THE MEANING OF STATISTICS

The term Statistics is derived from Latin word “Status” and the Italian word “Statistia” and the German word ^“Statistik”. Thus the original principle purpose of Statistic is that the data is used by governmental and administrative bodies.

The words “status,  Statista and Statistik”, which means the numerical information for the state and it is related to the Economic system of the country.

 

 (Originally- science deals with facts of a state) Via German ‘’Statistik’’, Latin word ‘’status’’ and an Italian word ‘’statista’’- meaning ‘a political state’. Originally meant information useful the state. For example, information about the sizes of population and armed forces.

«  The word statistics refers to ‘numerical facts systematically arranged’, in this sense the word statistics is always used in the plural. In this sense the word statistics is always used in the plural. We have, for instance, statistics of price- statistics of road accidents- statistics of crimes- statistics of birth- statistics of educational institutions. In all these examples the word statistics denotes a set of numerical data in the respective fields.

«  The word statistic is defined as a discipline that includes procedures and techniques used to collect, process and analyze numerical data to make inferences and to reach decisions in the face of uncertainty.

«  The word statistics are numerical quantities calculated from sample observations

DEFINITION OF STATISTICS

According to Merriam Webster dictionary: - A branch of Mathematics dealing with a collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of masses of numerical data.

Definition of Social Statistics.

Social Definition:

Social statistics is the use of statistical measurement system to study the human behavior in a social environment or it is the3 scientific explanation of actual events of man’s social life.

Social scientists use statistics for many purposes;

⇨          The evaluation of quality of services available to a group or an organization.

⇨          To analyze the human behavior in a social environment or in a special situation.

⇨          To determine the wants and needs of people through statistical sampling.

 

FUNCTIONAL DEFINITION

Lovitt: - Statistics is the science that deals with collection, classification, and tabulation of numerical facts as the basis for explanation, description, and comparison of phenomena.

W-I King: - The science of statics is the method of judging collective, natural, or social phenomena from the results obtained from the analysis, enumeration or collection of estimates.

CHARACTERISTIC OF SOCIAL STATISTICS

The important characteristic of social statistics or as follows.

1.       It consists of aggregate of facts: - In the plural sense statistics refers to data but data to be called statistics must consist of certain facts. A single and isolated fact or figure like (60) kg. Weight of the student or the death of a particular person on a day does not amount to statistics. For a data may amount to statistics it must be in the form of a set or aggregate of certain facts. Via 50.65.70 kgs weight of students in a class or profits of a firm over the different kinds etc. is liable to be effected by multiplicity of causes.

2.       Numerically Expressed: - A data to be called statistics should be numerically expressed so that counting and measurement of data can be made possible. It means that the data or the fact to constitute statistics must be capable of being expressed in some quantitative form as weight of 60.70.100 and 90 kg.

3.       Enumerated or estimated accurately: - For getting reasonable standard of accuracy field of enquiry must not be very large. To achieve it we have to make an estimate according to reasonable standard of accuracy depending upon the nature and purpose of collection of data.

4.       Collection in Systematic Manner: - It should be collected in a systematic manner the data collected in haphazard manner will lead to difficulties in the process of analyzed and wrong conclusions. A proper plain should be made and trained investigators should be used to collect data so that they may collect statistics so to get collect result the data must be collected in a precise manner.

5.       Should be Collected for predetermined purpose: -Before we start the collection of data we must be clear with the purpose for which we are collecting the data if we have no information about its purpose we may not be collecting the data according to the needs.

6.       Facts which are Subject to Variation: - It’s not easy to study the effect of one factor only by ignoring the effects of other factors. It is used in different fields with different uses.

7.       Should be Capable of Being Placed in relation to each other: - The collection of data is generally done with the motive to compare. If the figure are collected are not comparable in that case they lose a large part of their significance.

8.       Department of Enquiry: -One of the most important characteristics is that it deals with the departments of enquiry.

OBJECTIVES OF STATISTICS

General Objectives:

To adopt the various techniques of data collection, presentation, interpretation, testing of hypothesis in a practical manner and report writing to produce the quality research.

 

Specific Objectives:

⇨           To analyze the data in a comparable form.

⇨            To compare the past and present result.

⇨            To give concrete information about any problem.

⇨            To find out the changes between different data.

⇨            To find out the effects of such changes probabilities in future.

 

FUNCTIONS OF STATISTICS

Statistics as a discipline is considered indispensable in almost all spheres of human knowledge. There is hardly any branch of study which does not use statistics. Social and economic studies use statistics almost in all aspects of an enquiry it mainly aims at simplifying the complexity of information collected as an enquiry it analysis data and facilitates drawl of conclusions. Let’s briefly study it.    

1. Presents facts in a simple form: -Statistics presents facts and figures in a definite form. That makes the statement logical and convincing than mere description. It condenses the whole mass of figures into a single figure.
2. Reduces the complexity of data:-statistics simplifies the complexity of data. The raw data are unintelligible; we make them simple and intelligible by using different statistical measures. Some such commonly used measures are graphs, averages, dispersions, correlation and regression etc. These measure help in interpretation and drawing inferences. There for. Statistics enables to enlarge the horizon of one’s knowledge.
3. Facilitates comparisons: -Comparisons between different sets of observations is an important function of statistics. One of the objectives of statistics is to enable comparisons between past and present results to ascertain the reason of change. Statistical devices like averages- ratios- coefficient etc. are used for the purpose of comparisons.
4. Testing hypothesis: -Formulating and testing hypothesis is an important function of statistics. This help in determining new theories. So statistics examines the truth and help in innovating new ideas.
5. Formulation of Policies: -Statistics help in formulating plans and policies in different fields. Statistical analysis of data forms the beginning of policy formulations. Hence, statistics is essential for planners, economists, scientists, and administrators to prepare different plans and programs.
6. Forecasting: -The future is uncertain. Statistics help in forecasting the trend and tendencies. Statistical techniques are used for predicting the future values of a variable.
7. Derives valid inferences: -Statistical methods mainly aim at deriving inferences from an enquiry. Statistical techniques are often used by scholars, planners and scientists to evaluate different projects.
8. Enlarges individual’s experience: -One may stress his best ability, intelligence and experience in judging the quantitative significance of a phenomenon. That’s why Bowley says ‘’The proper function of statistics is indeed is to enlarge an individual’s experience’’.
9. Tests of the laws of other sciences: -The one of most important functions of statistics is that deductive laws of many other sciences are verified with the help of statistical data with the applications of statistical methods.

IMPORTANCE OF STATISTICS

Statistics is perhaps a subject that is used by everybody. Following are the importance of statistics.

1. Planning without statistics cannot be imagined:-Modern age is the age of planning. Future is largely planned and this planning must be used on the correct analysis of statistical data.
2. Essential for social studies/sciences: -Statistics help the sociologists who can find the relationship between suicide and poverty by collecting an adequate statistical data.
3. Constitutes a record of past knowledge: -Past knowledge of statistics helps in comparing the results from years to years and in finding the reasons for changes and effects of such changes in future.
4. Simplifies the connection between facts:-If data are collected relating the ages of husbands and ages of wives, it is seen that a causal connection exists between these two series.
5. Aid to supervision: - In order to see the effects of new planes, the administrator must be in a possession of an accurate statistics to study the effectiveness of such studies.
6. Utility in agriculture:-The applications of statistics help to design and analysis of agriculture experiments. It answers the questions of which type of corn gives the best yield a what kind of mixture of grass seeds gives the most tons of hay per acre?
7. Utility in insurance companies: -Insurance companies gather information regarding the longevity and mortality rates at different ages averages causes of life and death which is caused by accidents etc.
8. Utility to bankers:- Infect bankers have to a considerable extent on statistical information. The bank has to conduct constant enquiries regarding deposits under different categories. The nature of demand for daily withdrawal.
9. Uses in Biological and physical sciences: -Analyzing numerical data. It’s used almost in every branch of learning in the biological and physical sciences, Genetics, Agronomy, Anthropology, Astronomy, Physics and Geology.

ESSAY ON THE USES OF STATISTICAL METHOD IN MODERN SOCIOLOGY

Essay on the Uses of Statistical Method in Sociology – From the 17th Century onwards statistical methods have become essential in analyzing vital statistics concerning people or things.

1.      The term “statistics” may be used in two ways: (i) to refer to the application of statistical methods to social or non-social problems, and (ii) to refer to the actual numerical data collected in relation to these problems.

2.      The term ‘social statistics’ or ‘statistical method’ refers to the method that is used to measure social phenomena mathematically. It may be regarded as “the method of collecting, analysing and interpreting numerical information about social aggregates”. As Bogardus has pointed out “Social statistics is mathematics applied to human facts”.

3.      The statistical method is of great help in some cases in order to disclose the relationship be­tween different aspects of social phenomena. It also helps to arrive at generalisations regarding their nature, occurrence, and meaning. It is an important tool in research in the sense it can be effectively used in issues or problems which involve measurement or numerals.

4.      For example, this method can be very effectively used in studies relating to rates of birth and death, divorce and marriage, crime and suicide. Useful information can be obtained by the application of this method in studies pertain­ing to migration, economic conditions, standard of living, human ecology, public opinion, and so on.

5.      The statistical method reveals certain distinctive features when applied to the study of social phenomena. Firstly, collection of numerical information about social issues or problems cannot always be done by direct observation. It has to be done through questionnaires and surveys which have their own limitations.

6.      Secondly, a social statistician is concerned with the problems of inter­views also. In interviews some respondents may refuse to provide the information which they have been asked for. If such respondents are selected out of sampling, the problem of refusal becomes a significant deficiency in the whole process.

7.      Thirdly, social statisticians are often interested in the analysis of data, which can be ordered but not measured. (Ex: the provision of medical facilities being classified into—good, fair, indifferent and poor).

8.      Sociologists like Comte, Prof. Giddings and others have emphasised the importance of this method in sociological research. It is true that most of the data dealt with in sociology are qualitative and not quantitative in nature. Still sociologists are struggling to reduce more and more of such data to quantitative terms so that they can be studied statistically.

METHODS OF STATISTICS

Statistics as a subject may be divided into ‘’Descriptive statistics’’ and ‘’Inferential statistics’’.

1. Descriptive statistics

 Definition: Any treatment of data the data that leads towards collection, presentation and summaries of some numerical facts that transform the fact/data into knowledge.

OR

It’s the branch of statistics that deals with concepts and methods with summarization and description of the important aspects of numerical data.

Concerned Areas of study:

1.  Condensation of data.

2.  Graphical display.

3.  Computation of a few numerical quantities that provide information about the center of the data and indicate the spread of the observations.

4.  Measures of central  tendencies (mean-mode-median)

5.  Measures of dispersion (standard-mean-deviation )

6  Spread of observations (frequency distribution)

2. Inferential statistics

Definition:   It’s the branch of statistics which deals with making logical judgments on the basis of circumstantial evidences.

OR

Any treatment of the data that leads towards conclusion, prediction, forecast and estimation that are used to transform the information into valid knowledge.

Concerned areas of study:

1.  Making inferences

2.  Testing of hypothesis (regression-correlation)

3.  Prediction

4. Estimation

5. Determining the relationship

TYPES OF INFERENTIAL STATISTICS:

There are two types of inferential statistical tests.

1. PARAMETRIC TEST
2. NON-PARAMETRIC TEST

PARAMETRIC TEST: It’s the one which specify the certain conditions about the parameters of the population from which the sample is taken.Ex; 2 tests. T-test, F-distribution test.

NON-PARAMETRIC TEST :( Cause and Effect) It does not specify the certain condition about the parameters of the population from which the sample is taken.

‘’KEY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DESCRPTIVE AND INFERENTIAL STATISTICS’’

1.  Descriptive statistics is a discipline which is concerned with describing the population under study. Inferential statistics is a type of statistics that focuses on drawing conclusions about the population on the basis of sample analyze and observation.

2.  Descriptive statistics collects, organizes, analyzes and presents data in a meaningful way. On the contrary, inferential statistics compares data, test hypothesis and make predictions of the future outcomes.

3.  There is diagrammatic or tabular representation of final result in descriptive statistics whereas the final result is displayed in the form of probability.

4.  Descriptive statistics describes a situation while inferential statistics explains the likelihood of the occurrence of an event.

5.  Descriptive statistics explains the data, which is already known to summarize sample, Conversely, Inferential statistics attempt to reach the conclusion to learn about the population; that extends beyond the data available.

4Descriptive       VS        Inferential

Descriptive	Inferential
Based on population	Based on Sampling
Describes the characteristics of population and data.	Deeply analyze the data and observation.
The concerned method of descriptive statistics is measurement of data. It deals with the small population, which enable us to produce/drive more valid results with error.	Inferential statistics takes a larger population for reaching the valid conclusion.

Population parameter and statistical sample

 

 

 

Population:

Population is any large collection of individuals or objects, such as set of individuals’ items or things

 Population parameter:

Population parameter is a number which describes the whole data also population parameter takes up numerical values which represent the whole population.

Sample:

The sample is the representative part of whole population which is selected to indentify the characteristics of population.

 Statistical sample:

The population parameter is obtained from statistics which is calculated from randomly selected from a sample data.

 Variable:

Any characteristics or property that may either quality or quantity of an object or individual is called variable. Eg: age, height etc.

 

There are two types of variables;

1                   Qualitative variables:

The characteristics which is being studied nun-numerically. Eg: education, poverty, crime etc.

 2                   Quantitative variable:

          The characteristics which is being studied numerically.  Eg: size, population, etc.

 

Types of quantitative

Discrete:

Discrete variables can assume a certain volume and that always present count data.    

Note: The values always come in jumps. 

eg  numbers of students in class, no of persons , no of family members 

 Continuous variables:

The characteristics of any variable that can be measurable by the help of any instrument.

like : weight, high, and temperature  

Information Handling

 

Data

Raw data:

The information which is gathered but did not pass through the statistical process. first hand information

 Primary data:

The data which is in original form and did not pass through any statistical process.

note : there is no difference between raw and primary data

eg:  1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0,  which you have collected through your own efforts 

 

Sources of primary data

Interviews, questions, observation and mailing etc.

 Secondary data:

The data which is collected, tabulated, classified and passed through statistical process is called secondary data.

 Eg: internet, official records, unofficial records magazines, books etc.

Ungroup data:

The data which is in original form, it is called ungroup data.

eg. marks obtained by students   is x value

 x: 12,13,45,06,12,43,56,78,59, this is ungroud data example

Group data:

The arrangement or organization of data into different classes or groups according to the similarities.

example. 15 – 20

               21---30

                31---40

                 41---50

Types of classification

1                   one way classification

2                   two way classification

 

Tabulation:

The systematic arrangement of the data into rows and columns is called tabulation.

 

Frequency:

The number of items which comes in any class interval is called frequency. The symbol of frequency is denoted by “f”.

like the number of students in class is 23 so we can say the total frequency of that class is 23

 

Class interval:

The difference between upper class boundary and lower class boundary is called class interval.

eg ….10____20

          20_____30    the difference of 10 to 20 is 10 which is the class interval

 

Class limits:

The value of variables which describes the smaller number is the lower class limit and the larger number is the upper class limit, is called class limits.

     10-------------20

     20------------30

      30------------40

      40------------50

 lower limits      upper limits

Class boundary:

Class boundaries are the precise number which separate one class from another, the selection of these classes removes the difficulties.

 

Class marks/mid point: (x)

We calculate (class marks) by the help of average.

 total sum divided by total numbers of its units. 10-20=30

        divided by 2 ..answer is 15

 

Frequency distribution:

An organized display of the data in which various items are arranged into classes or groups is called frequency distribution.

 

Construction/formulation of frequency distribution:

⇨        To determine the smallest and largest value from the raw data.

⇨        To find out the value of range (difference between highest and lowest value).

⇨        To determine approximate class interval size by dividing the value of range.

⇨        Decide the number of classes.

⇨        Distribute the raw data according to their possible classes or groups.

⇨        At the end by listing the actual values in the groups or classes.

 

 

Construct of frequency distribution from the following raw data (marks obtained by the aspirants in the entry test of BS Sociology)

Raw data:

45,23,16,37,62,61,65,55,44,36,25,15,62,59,49,39,41,52,60,17,20,21,22,20,40.

 construction of frequency distribution

Range : is the difference between largest and smallest value: Hv = 65  ,      Lv =  15   =    50

                                            50/10=5

Approximate class interval = 5 is ( differences between the classes)  10 would be number of classes

 

Class	Entries	Tally bar
f15 – 20	15,15,17,20,20,16,	IIII I	6
20 – 25	23,22,21,25	IIII	4
25 – 30	0	0	0
30 – 35	0	0	0
35 – 40	37,39,40,36	IIII	4
40 – 45	45,44,41	III	3
45 – 50	49	I	1
50 – 55	55,52	II	2
55 – 60	59,60	II	2
60 – 65	61,62,65,62	IIII	4
			26

                                                                                                    total frequency is 26

 

 

  

 

Created by : ZAHOOR AHMED LEHRI