Justifying the Means

Posted by Laura on November 4, 2009 in statistics

Though most of my thoughts about statistics have remained steadfast in that I do not enjoy learning about it, I have begun to realize the importance of getting a basic background in statistics. I have always been interested in reading about psychology experiments and the information about the human mind that is uncovered through them. However, in my naivety, I never stopped to think about where the information comes from, how conclusions are drawn, or the validity of any set of results. Without statistics, psychology is like running a race without a clock. You may have won, but there’s no way to prove it, and no measure of the differences.

As challenging as it is to look at a spreadsheet of numbers and have to figure out exactly what test to run and which variables to compare, it is empowering to know that I can do exactly that. I can take pages of raw data, analyze them, and report results with 95 or even 99 percent certainty. With this knowledge, I can also make my own decisions about how valid and reliable the conclusions of other experiments are as well.

As a psychology major, I expect that reading numerous psych lab reports will not be going away any time soon. The difference is now, as opposed to last year, I don’t have to skip over the results section of the paper because I do not understand the notation. Z scores, t tests, one and two way ANOVAs, not a problem. This also means that I can get more involved with psychology research. Understanding the basics of statistics provides a huge advantage when working in a lab and conducting actual experiments. So, although it takes some time and commitment to understand even just the basics, you get just as much out of it. In this case, the end does justify the means.