Raskauskas and Stoltz (2007) asked a group of 84 adolescents about their involvement in traditional and electronic bullying. The researchers defined electronic bullying as “…a means of bullying in which peers use electronics (such as text messages, emails, and defaming Web sites) to taunt, threaten, harass, and/or intimidate a peer” (p. 565). The table below is a frequency table showing the adolescents’ reported incidence of being victims or perpetrators of traditional and electronic bullying.

Using the table below as an example, explain the idea of a frequency table to a person who has never taken a course in statistics.

Explain the general meaning of the pattern of results.

Incidence of Traditional and Electronic Bullying and Victimization (N = 84)

Forms of bullying

N

%

Electronic victims

41

48.8

Text-message victim

27

32.1

Internet victim (websites, chatrooms)

13

15.5

Camera-phone victim

8

9.5

Traditional victims

60

71.4

Physical victim

38

45.2

Teasing victim

50

59.5

Rumors victim

32

38.6

Exclusion victim

30

50

Electronic bullies

18

21.4

Text-message bully

18

21.4

Internet bully

11

13.1

Traditional bullies

54

64.3

Physical bully

29

34.5

Teasing bully

38

45.2

Rumor bully

22

26.2

Exclusion bully

35

41.7

Describe whether each of the following data words best describes descriptive statistics or inferential statistics. Explain your reasoning.

1.  Describe:

Infer:

2.  Summarize:

Compare the three types of research methods and statistics.

Regarding gun ownership in the United States, data from Gallup polls over a 40-year period show how gun ownership in the United States has changed. The results are described below, with the percentage of Americans who own guns given in each of the 5 decades.

Year

%

1972

43

1982

42

1992

48

2002

40

2012

43

1.  Are the percentages reported above an example of descriptive statistics or inferential statistics?  Why?

2.  Based on the table, how would you describe the changes in gun ownership in the United States over the 40 years shown?

Refer to the Simpson-Southward et al. (2016) article from this week’s electronic readings. Was this an example of inferential statistics and research or descriptive statistics and research? Justify your response.