inferential statistics
inferential statistics Statistics which permit the researcher to demonstrate the probability that the results deriving from a sample are likely to be found in the population from which the sample has been drawn. They therefore allow sociologists to generalize from representative samples, by applying ‘tests of significance’ to patterns found in these samples, in order to determine whether these hold for populations as a whole. The other type of statistics in which sociologists are interested are descriptive statistics, which summarize the patterns in the responses within a data-set, and provide information about averages, correlations, and so forth. See also SIGNIFICANCE TESTS; STATISTICAL INFERENCE.
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inferential statistics
