parametric statistics

A Dictionary of Sociology | 1998 | 530 words | Copyright

parametric statistics A branch of statistical inference which makes assumptions about the underlying mathematical distributional form of observed variables. The most familiar of these hypothetical mathematical distributions is the normal distribution. Binomial and Poisson distributions are also widely used. Some statisticians believe that these models are inappropriate to the social sciences, since they rest on assumptions that are violated by much social science data, and prefer instead to rely on non-parametric statistics.

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GORDON MARSHALL. "parametric statistics." A Dictionary of Sociology. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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