Statistics - Study Types

A statistical study can be a part of the process of gathering data.

There are different types of studies. Some are better than others, but they might be harder to do.

Main Types of Statistical Studies

The main types of statistical studies are observational and experimental studies.

We are often interested in knowing if something is the cause of another thing.

Experimental studies are generally better than observational studies for investigating this, but usually require more effort.

An observational study is when observe and gather data without changing anything.

Experimental Studies

In an experimental study, the circumstances around the sample is changed. Usually, we compare two groups from a population and these two groups are treated differently.

One example can be a medical study to see if a new medicine is effective.

One group receives the medicine and the other does not. These are the different circumstances around those samples.

We can compare the health of both groups afterwards and see if the results are different.

Experimental studies can allow us to investigate causal relationships. A well designed experimental study can be useful since it can isolate the relationship we are interested in from other effects. Then we can be more confident that we are measuring the true effect.