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HLT 362V Discussion Question with Answers Week 1 to 5
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HLT 362V Discussion Question with AnswersWeek 1 to 5
Module 1 stats
Thank you all for the effort that you put forth in answering the questions that I have posed
to you.
How could graphics and/or statistics be used to misrepresent data?
Some examples of inappropriate use of statistics are when you use a mean to describe a
situation where there are outliers in the data. An outlier is when one or a few data points
are not like the others, the example I was using was house prices. Whenever you see a
description of the average price of a house, a median is used instead of a mean because
outliers do not influence a median. Another example, would be where a nominal variable
is converted into a numerical value and then an average is reported. For example, if
ethnicity were converted into a number (i.e. African American = 1, Hispanic = 2, and
Asian/Pacific Islander = 3) and then an average was calculated (i.e. 2.2) to say that the
most common ethnicity was “Hispanic”. This would be an inappropriate use of statistics
because certain statistical test are restricted to certain classes of data. Another example
if you had a discrete variable (gender: male = 1 and female = 2) versus a continuous
variable (time). If you were to combine these two data sets to describe some phenomena
that would also be an inappropriate use of statistics. There are certain assumptions for
different statistical tests. When those assumptions are ignored the results are inaccurate
and should not be used to make any type of conclusion. I did not expect you to come up
with these examples, but I wanted to list them here so that you had a clear understanding
of inappropriate use of statistics versus an unethical use of statistics. An unethical use of
statistics refers to example were mentioned in the discussion board here people manipulate
or make up data to achieve some desired result. Unfortunately this may happen, but an
effort to reduce these types of problems is built into the scientific process: replication. If
a very desirable result is achieved then other researchers independent of the original
investigators will replicate the study to see if they get similar results. The more
replication that happened potentially the more robust the results are. Unfortunately this
may not take place in the private sector because of trade secrets. However, you can
defend against any of these misuses or inappropriate use of statistics by gaining
knowledge of how statistics works, what are the limitations of specific statistical tests, and
what questions you should ask to gain confidence in the results. Hence the discussion
question of “How can you defend against inappropriate use of statistics.” Everyone who
responded to this question did a nice job in thinking of ways to defend against this.
What are the characteristics of a population for which it would be appropriate to
use mean/median/mode? When would the characteristics of a population make
them inappropriate to use?
In general you all did a great job on this discussion board question. There was a clear
understanding that a mean is only appropriate for certain situations. In fact a mean only
tells you part of the story and other measures are used to tell you the rest of the story, such
as variability. More information will always give you a clearer picture of what is going on,
provided it is relevant and not confusing.
This study source was downloaded by 100000839495789 from CourseHero.com on 01-27-2022 03:47:47 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/14382849/Stats-DQs-week-1-5/
, HLT 362V Discussion Question with Answers
Week 1 to 5
The characteristics for when a mean is appropriate is when the data is numerical and does
not have any outlier data. If outliers are present then a median is a better way to represent
the average. If the data is not numerical then a mode is the only measure that can be used.
This study source was downloaded by 100000839495789 from CourseHero.com on 01-27-2022 03:47:47 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/14382849/Stats-DQs-week-1-5/
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