The real beginning of modern statistics can be fixed at the beginning of the 20th century with the appearance of the works of Karl Pearson (creator of inferential or inductive statistics) and Ronald Aylmer Fisher (developed the rigorous theory of drawing conclusions from observed data). Other reference names in the foundation of social statistics are: CE Spearman, GU Yule, MG Kendall, AA Markov, etc. To the psychologist and, in general, to the human sciences researcher, statistics is a set of mathematical methods and techniques for organizing and processing data, used to answer certain questions and test certain hypotheses. Data is information, mainly numerical, that represents certain characteristics. For example, if we want to know the anxiety level of a group, the data can be scores on an anxiety scale, and statistical techniques help us describe and understand these scores. The human sciences use a large amount of data to test hypotheses and formulate theories. It is important to emphasize, however, that data collection is not enough for scientific research. Even the most objective and carefully collected information, taken as such, cannot tell us much. To be useful, data must be organized, evaluated and analyzed. Without a good understanding of the principles of statistical analysis and an appropriate application of statistical techniques, the researcher will not be able to understand the significance of the collected data.
The main stages of a research:
- The stage of formulating the research problem in which the researcher formulates a statement of a problem or a question to which the research will try to give an answer. The research problem can come from various sources, including theories, previous research, and research orders.
- Once the research problem has been formulated, the process enters a second stage , in which decisions are made regarding the research project and research methods and techniques are chosen. At this stage, the researcher decides what types of cases will be included in the research, how many cases will be considered, and how they will be investigated.
- After all the cases have been investigated and all the relevant data have been collected, the statistics become really and directly important for the analysis of the results ( third stage ). It is important to remember that if the researcher has formulated the problem incorrectly or designed the research incorrectly, then the most sophisticated statistical analyzes are worthless. As useful as it may be, statistics cannot substitute for rigorous conceptualization, nor do they constitute a research project appropriate to the problem at hand.
mainly uses real numbers (rational, whole, natural). Basic terms: methods; techniques; tools (The basic method is the psychological survey and the main tool is the questionnaire. It can also be the structured interview guide, observation sheet, etc.), coding of items and answers; initial simulation and correction etc. The questions (or items) are of several types: those that generate a single variable (these are the questions that require a single answer option); questions that generate several variables (these are the questions that allow several answer options, each option generating a variable).
