Which type of statistics is used to generalize findings from a sample to a population?

• A. Descriptive statistics.
• B. Qualitative coding.
• C. Case study summaries.
• D. Inferential statistics.

Answer: (D)

Inferential statistics are used to generalize findings from a sample to a population. They go beyond merely describing the data you collected and apply probability reasoning to estimate population parameters, test hypotheses, and quantify uncertainty with tools like confidence intervals and p-values. This allows researchers to say how likely it is that the patterns observed in the sample would appear in the broader group.

Descriptive statistics, by contrast, simply summarize the sample data—means, medians, ranges, and so on—without making claims about the larger population. Qualitative coding focuses on organizing and interpreting non-numeric data to identify themes, not on probabilistic generalization. Case study summaries provide in-depth detail about a particular instance or small set of cases and aren’t designed to generalize to a larger population in a statistical sense.