Discussion
When results are had by research, we now need to make sense of them. This chapter discusses what to do with results and making proper generalizations about those results. When using inferential statistics, we are able to make broader assumptions or inferences about larger population (group) based on a smaller sample of that group. For example, since we can't study EVERY high school student looking at colleges, we would need to create a smaller (random) sample of high school students to study so we can make broader inferences about the larger group: high school students.
What is inferential significance?
"...inferential statistics help with three major tasks--estimating the probability that a sample represents a population, deciding whether there are significant differences between and among groups of people, and deciding whether there are significant relationships between and among variables" (pg. 114).
What does statistical significance really mean? 300 words APA