Research Methods, Statistics, and Applications
Multimedia and Web Resources
Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.
Video Resource
Video 1: Understanding the Standard Deviation
Learning Objective: 5-2: How to describe your sample using descriptive statistics.
Description: Explanation and visualization of the standard deviation
Web Resources
Example Reports (see links below)
Learning Objective: 5-2: How to describe your sample using descriptive statistics. | 5-3: The appropriate statistics and graphs based on the type of data you have.
Description: Links to a variety of descriptive studies examining prevalence and trends.
Examples Discussed in Chapters 4 and 5
Pew Research Center. Reports and statistics from a variety of public opinion polls and other studies examining a variety of issues affecting American life. www.pewresearch.org/data/
National Longitudinal Study of Youth. Reports and statistics from an ongoing study of American Youth. www.bls.gov/nls/
U.S. Census Bureau. Census data and results from the U.S. Government. www.census.gov
Additional Examples of Descriptive Research
United States
General Interest
- The Gallup Organization: www.gallup.com
- General Social Survey: http://www3.norc.org/GSS+Website/
- National Opinion Research Center: www.norc.uchicago.edu;
- New York Times Opinion Polls: www.nytimes.com/ref/us/polls_index.html;
- The Roper Center: www.ropercenter.uconn.edu
Children and Youth
- Monitoring the Future: http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/
Crime Statistics
- Department of Justice: www.usdoj.gov/
- Federal Bureau of Investigation: www.fbi.gov/
Health
- National Center for Health Statistics: www.cdc.gov/nchs
Income and Labor
- Internal Revenue Service: http://irs.gov/
- Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://stats.bls.gov/
International
- International Social Survey Program: www.issp.org/
- Population Reference Bureau: www.prb.org
- United Nations: www.un.org
Data sets
Practice calculating descriptive statistics with a data analysis program. Use any of the data sets available on the “Datasets” tab.