The emphasis upon the decision-makin aspects of statistics is a recent one. In its early years, the study of statistics largerly consisted of methodology for summarizing or describing numerical data. Any aspects facilitating choice were secondary in importance to the then essentially reportorial nature of the subject. Tis area of study has become known as descriptive statistics because it is concerned largerly with summary calculations and graphical displays. These methods are in contrast with the modern approach, where generalizations are made about the whole, called the population, by investigating a portion, reffered to as the sample.

Thus, the average income of all families in Indonesia can be estimated from figures obtained from a few hundred families. Such a prediction or estimate is an example of an inference. The study of how inferences are made from numerical data is thus called inferential statistics.

Inferential statistics acknowledges the potential for error that exist in making generalizations from a sample.

Probability theory measures the chances that an untypical sample will be selected from a population whose characteristics are known. Inferential statistis is based on probability theory, extending its concepts to measurement of the chance of erroneous generalization, even when the characteristics of the population are unknown or uncertain

Reference/ Resume From:

Lapin, Lawrence (1975) Statistics Meaning and Method. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.

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