PSY 055

Psychological Statistics

Frequency Distribution
and Graphical
Presentation
PERIODICAL 1
WEEK 3
MODULE 3

Prepared by: PHINMA COC Psychology Program Faculty

COURSE CODE PSY 055

DESCRIPTIVE Psychological Statistics

TITLE
CREDIT UNIT Lecture: 3 units
Laboratory: 2 units
PLACEMENT First Year, Second
Semester
PREREQUISITE PSY 079 (Introduction to
Psychology)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Psychological Statistics
introduces the students to
basic concepts and methods
of descriptive and inferential
statistics and their use in the
design, analysis, and
interpretation of psychological
studies. As a core course in
the program, students will also
be introduced to the basics of
research with the application
of statistical treatment.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Organize data in a condensed and
coherent way of presenting
relevant quantitative information.
2. Interpret the observed patterns
and trends from the descriptive
frequency distribution table
3. Understand the different graphical
presentations and its uses.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Start End Activity Duration
0:00 0:10 Attendance 5 minutes
Set Learning Outcomes 2 minutes
Active Learning 1 / Connect 3 minutes
0:10 0:40 Lecture / Coach 30 minutes
0:40 0:50 Active Learning 2 10 minutes
0:50 1:20 Lecture / Coach 30 minutes
1:20 1:30 Active Learning 3 10 minutes
1:30 1:40 Wrap-Up Activity 5 minutes
Reminders 5 minutes
ACTIVE LEARNING 1 /
CONNECT: Quick Recap
How are you today?
Let’s a have a quick review
of lesson last week.

Get ¼ sheet of paper

Scan through your notes for

2 minutes
 ACTIVE LEARNING 1 /
CONNECT: Quick Recap
On your paper write your name,
section, and date today

Write your answer on your paper

1. What specific variables

(specific term for these types of
variables) we are interested to
study in Psychology?
 ACTIVE LEARNING 1 /
CONNECT: Quick Recap

Write your answer on your paper

2 – 5. What are the levels of

measurement. Arrange them
from very simple to very complex
level of measurement.
ACTIVE LEARNING 1 /
CONNECT: Quick Recap
Exchange paper with your
seatmate.

Write “Corrected by:” and then

your name on your seatmate’s
paper your are going to correct.
ACTIVE LEARNING 1 /
CONNECT: Quick Recap
Answer Key:
1. Psychological constructs (2 pts.),
Psychological variables (1 pt.)
2. Nominal (2pts.)

3. Ordinal (2pts.)

4. Interval (2pts.)
5. Ratio (2pts.)
• Perfect score is 10/10
• Count the number of points, then return it to the
owner.
• Pass all papers to the instructor
ACTIVE LEARNING 1 /
CONNECT: COLD CALL
Why do you think it is important to remember the
concepts we tackled last week?

Do you have any confusions, clarifica<ons, and further

ques<ons about our topics last week? We need this
before we proceed to for our next topic.
What do we mean by organizing
data, and why do we need it?
Analogy: Bag of M & M’s
● Think of a bag of M & M’s candies
● When you open it, the candies are mixed
● You can’t tell which color is dominant/
common or which one is least common.
Analogy: Bag of M & M’s
● But when you organized it, you can see
some patterns or trends, that can help you
better describe it or even potentially lead to
speculations to infer.
● Now, let’s try this. What observations can
you see in this sorted/organized candies?
Let’s talk about raw data
● In reality, a lot of things are varied. That’s why it is
called a “variable”. Example, we all know that we all are
intelligent beings, but we are also aware that some
people have high intelligence, other are bit lower, then
the rest fell in between called the average. This is also
true to other variables like personality, motivation,
gender, etc.
● Data are samples that represent a piece of our real
world.
● Since it represents a piece of the real world, our raw
data will contain varied responses.
● Unsorted/unorganized raw data is like a bag of M&M’s.
If you simply look at a raw data, it will not make sense,
not unless you organized it.
How do we organized the raw data?

We can do that by using

TABLES
Not that table, but this table as an
example.
 Frequency Distribution:
A Visual Summary of Data
● A frequency distribution is
a statistical technique used
to summarize and organize
data by showing the
number of times each
value or category occurs in
a dataset. It's a powerful
tool for understanding the
distribution and patterns
within data.
Types of Frequency Distributions:
● Simple Frequency Distribution:
○ Used for small datasets with few distinct values/categories.
○ Used for NOMINAL and ORDINAL data (Categorical
variables).
○ Each value is listed separately, along with its corresponding
frequency.

● Grouped Frequency Distribution:

○ Used for large datasets with many distinct values/scores.
○ Used for INTERVAL and RATIO data (Continuous
variables).
○ Data is divided into intervals or classes, and the frequency
of values falling within each interval is counted.
Key Components of a Simple Frequency
Distribution
● Table Title: Contains the title of what the
table is about.
● Category: The characteristic or attribute
being organized.
● Frequency: The number of times a
particular value or category occurs.
● Percentage: A number or ratio expressed
as a fraction of 100. It is often denoted
using the percent sign (%).
 Example:
Simple Frequency Distribution table
Table 1: Mass media exposure on Youth

Qureshi, 2019. Socio-Psychological effects of mass media on youth. Internal

Journal of Innovation and Applied Science, 26(1), 73-83.
Some rules in dealing with Ordinal data
for Simple Frequency Distribution:

● Retain the logical sequence of the

categories.
● Disrupting the sequence can reduced
legibility of the tabular presentation.
Simple Frequency
Distribution for Ordinal data
Poor legibility Legible
Table 1: Frequency Distribution for Educational Table 1: Frequency Distribution for Educational
Attainment Attainment
Degree f % Degree f %
Bachelor’s 23 46.0 Elementary 2 4.0

Elementary 2 4.0 High School 10 20.0

High School 10 20.0 Bachelor’s 23 46.0

Post Doctorate 1 2.0 Masters 9 18.0

PhD 5 10.0 PhD 5 10.0

Masters 9 18.0 Post Doctorate 1 2.0

N= 50 Total = 100 N= 50 Total = 100

Grouped Frequency Distribution
● A grouped frequency distribution is used
when the data is continuous (INTERVAL
AND RATIO) and there are many different
values. It groups the data into intervals, or
classes, and then counts the number of
values that fall into each interval.
Let’s try this!
Time (minutes) spent in social media

What can you say about the raw data?

Does the raw data make sense to you?

Let’s organize the data

Is this
legible
enough
for you?

Is this easy for you to see patterns and trends of the

responses using this type of tabular presentation?
Determine class interval
- A category in a group distribution containing
more than one score values.
- Range: The difference between the highest
and the lowest scores in a distribution.
Example:
Range = highest score – lowest score i = 175-150
5
- Interval width (i) i = 25/ 5
i = ______Range_________
Number of class intervals i=5

In every class interval/group there are 5 scores

As you can see, there are five scores per
class interval, that is our interval width.
Determine the Class Limits
● The point midway between adjacent class
intervals that serves to close the gap
between them.

● Formula
Class limits = Upper limit of one class + lower limit of the next class
2
Class limits
are the
boundaries of
each class
interval. This
sets the
maximum and
minimum
limits.
Math hack: you can just deduct 0.5 in the
lower case score of the class interval,
and add 0.5 in the upper case score of
the class interval.
Determine the Midpoint
● The middle-most score value in a class interval.

● Serves as the spokesperson for all score values in

class interval.

● Single number can represent the entire class interval.

● Formula:
m = lowest score value + highest score value
2
Get the frequency, Relative frequency,
and percentage
● Frequency – the number of cases or count that fell
within the class interval.
○ Just tally the scores/responses that fell for every class
interval
● Relative frequency – the ratio of the number of
times the scores occurs in the set relative to the
total outcomes.
○ Equation is:
Rel f = f/N
● Percentage – a number or ratio expressed as a
fraction of 100.
○ Equation is:
Percentage= Rel f X 100 or f/N x 100
Get the Frequency Cumulative
Distribution
● Cumulative frequencies (cf) : Total number
of cases having any given score or a score
that is lower.
● Adding the frequency of a category to the
total frequency for all categories below it.
● Math hack: Just add the frequency per class interval until you reached
the last class interval at the top.
● Take note: make sure that the last value is equal to the overall total of
the frequency (N).
Get the Percentage Cumulative
Distribution
● Cumulative percentage (c%): the percentage
of cases having any score or a score that is
lower.
● Formula:
c% = (100) cf
N
* cf = cumulative frequency in any category
* N = total number of cases in the distribution
- Can also be obtained by summing the percent
distribution.
● Math hack: Just add the percentage per class interval until you
reached the last class interval at the top.
● Take note: make sure that the last value is equal to the overall total of
the percentage (Total %).
Present in APA format for
tabular presentation
Cross tabulation
● Also called as cross-tabs

● A table that presents the distribution

(frequencies and percent) of one variable
across the categories of one or more
additional variables.
Cream
ACTIVE LEARNING 2 / COACH:
Which is better?
● The class will be divided into two big
groups. The left side of the class is
Group A, the right side of the class is
Group B.
● Each group will be exposed to certain
Statistical results for 30 seconds.
● Two random group members will be
called to share his/her interpretation of
the descriptive statistical results.
ACTIVE LEARNING 2 / COACH:
Which is better?

Group A: In 30 seconds, what pattern and

trends can you observe, and what can you say
about it?
ACTIVE LEARNING 2 /
COACH: Which is better?

Group B: In 30 seconds, what pattern and trends

can you observe, and what can you say about it?
ACTIVE LEARNING 2 /
COACH: Which is
better?

● So, which presentation is better,

and why?
Graphical Presentations
Graphical Presentations
● Serve as visual aids.

● To increase the readability of findings.

● Can be less intimidating for people who are

not comfortable looking at numbers.
Pie chart
● A circular graphs whose
slices add up to 100%.
● One of the simplest
method.
● Nominal-level variable.
● Showing differences in
frequencies or
percentages among
categories.
What can you
say about this pie
chart?
● Pie chart showing the proportion of emotions present in each
analyzed Tweets in Twitter (currently called as X) during
COVID-19 Pandemic. (Ramirez-Sayago, 2020)
● Percentage distribution of grades 1-7 learners in
Filipino Reading ability (Lactao-Tomas, Villaros, and
Galman, 2021)
Bar Graph
● Plotting frequency distribution of
nominal or ordinal data.
● It can accommodate any number
of categories.
● The height of the bar represents
the frequency in each category.
● The bars for each category in a
bar graph do not touch each
other.
● Distribution of Discrete
variables.
Histogram
● This is used to represent
frequency distributions
composed of interval or ratio.
● Resembles the bar graph,
but with the histogram, a bar
is drawn for each class
interval.
● To display continuous
measures.
● There is continuity along the
scale
Distribution of scores for CES-D-12 (Center for Epidemiological
Studies Depression) – a measure for depressive symptoms.
Data conducted from 19,017 young adults (15-24 yrs old.) in the
Philippines last 2013 (Nationwide survey).
Respondents scored above 12 were categorized as having
moderate to severe depressive symptoms (Puyat, Gastardo-
Conaco, Natividad, and Banal, 2020)
Distribution of scores for perceived stress of quarantine
and isolation during COVID-19 Pandemic. Taken from a
global survey (TMGH-Global COVID-19 Collaborative,
2021).
Shape of a Frequency Distribution
Shape of a Frequency Distribution
● Kurtosis (u): peakedness of the distribution.

● Skewness (e): asymmetrical distribution.

■ Scores pile up in one direction creating a tail.

■ The position of the tail indicates where the

relatively few extreme scores are located and

determines the direction of skewness.
Kurtosis
Skewness
 Positively skewed

Normal Distribution

Negatively skewed
 What do you
think about this
distribution of
scores, what is
its skewness and
kurtosis? How
will you interpret
this graph?

Histogram of Students’ Math Attitudes Scale. Higher scores

indicates negative view/attitude towards Mathematics (Mohr-
Schroeder, Jackson, Cavalcanti…Speler, 2017).
ACTIVE LEARNING 2 / CHECK: COLD
CALL: Match the appropriate level of
measurement for each tabular or
graphical presentations.

1. Simple Frequency ● Nominal

Distribution ● Ordinal
2. Grouped ● Continuous
Frequency (Interval/Ratio)
Distribution
3. Pie Chart
4. Bar Graph
5. Histogram
Reminders
Thank you!