Name
NURS FPX7864: Quantitative Design and Analysis
Capella University
Prof Name
October, 2024
Descriptive Analysis
Descriptive analysis summarizes and interprets data to convey meaningful insights about its patterns and characteristics (Shorey & Ng, 2022). The goal can be achieved using various measures, such as central tendency-median, mean, and mode; dispersion-standard deviation and range; and descriptive characteristics of data distribution- skewness, kurtosis, etc.. Using descriptive analysis, we may obtain a very detailed understanding of the dataset to identify trends, variability, and the overall distribution of data points. This foundational approach is pivotal in guiding further analysis, particularly when inferences or conclusions are drawn from the dataset.
Histograms for Visual Interpretation
Final Lower Division
Upper Division
The following histograms show the distribution of grades for the junior and senior classes on the final exam. This data represents a total of 105 students: 49 juniors and 56 seniors. The juniors and seniors comprise the total student population that is classified as upper division.. The histogram for the lower division ranges from a score of about 40 to 75, while that of the upper division ranges from a slightly higher score of about 50 up to 74.
In terms of the means, it can be seen that 61.469 is the mean score for the students of the lower division while that of the upper division is 62.161, showing only a minor difference. The median score for each group is 62 which illustrates that in both groups, half of the students achieved this score or higher. Interesting is the fact that it depends on the group in which the score occurs most frequently; in the case of the lower division students 57, and the case of the upper division students 68. These values give an immediate impression of the central tendency and distribution in each group.
The data tends to depict very little variation between the two divisions, that is, lower and upper-division students, in terms of overall performance. The median score difference between the two divisions is well below one point, so it can be said that the exam was quite fair and the influence of class standing on the results is next to nothing. The standard deviation, reflecting the degree of variation in the scores, is calculated at 8.595 for the lower division and 6.747 for the upper division.. This indicates that the scores tend to be more tightly clustered around the mean for the upper-division students than the lower-division students.
The skewness and kurtosis values in both groups fall within the acceptable range of -1 to +1, so the data is relatively normal and free of any significant outlier or irregularity. The scores for the upper division bunch in a narrower range and have a higher minimum score than the lower division. However, on the balance of things, the results show that each division performed almost equally on the final exam, indicating that the final exam was well-balanced and fair to test the student’s abilities in both divisions.
Descriptive Statistics
| Variable | GPA | Quiz 3 |
| Mean | 3.015 | 6.987 |
| Std. Deviation | 0.765 | 1.450 |
| Skewness | -0.135 | -0.078 |
| Std. Error of Skewness | 0.240 | 0.240 |
| Kurtosis | -0.512 | 0.210 |
| Std. Error of Kurtosis | 0.470 | 0.470 |
The descriptive statistics table above shows the GPA and Quiz 3 for 105 students divided between the lower and upper divisions. The average GPA is 2.862, suggesting that students had an average GPA of approximately 71.6% of the maximum 4.0 scale. Similarly, the mean for Quiz 3 is 7.133, out of a maximum number of correct answers, which would mean students got approximately 71% of the questions right; A standard deviation of 0.713 for GPA is an indication of moderate variability in student GPAs. For Quiz 3, the standard deviation is 1.600, indicating a slightly higher variation in quiz performance among the students..
The skewness and the kurtosis values are between -1 and +1, indicating that both of them lie within acceptable limits. In this case, the skewness of GPA reads as -0.220, which is a bit on the left skew, meaning that fewer students have had GPAs lower than the mean. Quiz 3 is near normal with a skewness of -0.078, meaning little to no skew.The values of kurtosis for both variable GPA and Quiz 3 are within adequate limits. These are -0.688 for GPA and 0.149 for Quiz 3. Both distributions would therefore be mesokurtic, meaning that they have a normal peak and spread.. With an acceptable standard error of skewness and kurtosis, the data falls within acceptable normal ranges, so these results become reliable for interpreting the general performance of the students.
RSCH FPX 7864 Assessment 1 Conclusion
Descriptive analysis forms an important foundation by which the characteristics of a data set can be interpreted with the intent of summarizing important information about central tendency, variability, and distribution patterns (Metelski et al., 2021). It is useful to analyze the mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis metrics, among others, on how the data points are spread out and the comparison to normality. This form of analysis is precursory to more advanced inferential statistics, which rely on these initial results to explore relationships and differences in data. It is indeed instrumental to decision-making based on these facts.
RSCH FPX 7864 Assessment 1 References
Metelski, F. K., Santos, J. L. G. dos, Cechinel, C., Fabrizzio, G. C., Schmitt, M. D., & Heilemann, M. (2021). Constructivist grounded theory: Characteristics and operational aspects for nursing research. Revista Da Escola de Enfermagem Da USP, 55, e03776. https://www.scielo.br/j/reeusp/a/WrGy5B6wbCrz8jwLW5ykknP/?format=html&lang=en
Shorey, S., & Ng, E. D. (2022). Examining characteristics of descriptive phenomenological nursing studies: A scoping review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 78(7), 1968–1979. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jan.15244
