Measures of Central Tendency

Examples:

1. The number of employees at 5 different department stores are 5, 9, 10, 11, and 15. Find the
mean number of employees for the 5 stores.

Solution:
5  9  10  11  15
X 
5
 10

2. The salaries of 6 employees were P11,000, P9,000, P12,500, P20,000, P15,000, and
P24,000. What is the average salary?

Solution:
11,000  9 ,000  12,500  20,000  15,000  24,000
X 
6
 15,250
3. Out of 100 numbers, 20 were 5’s, 40 were 4’s 35 were 7’s and 5 were 3’s. Find the
mean.

Solution:
20( 5 )  40( 4 )  35( 7 )  5( 3 )
X 
100
 5.2

~
The Median [ X ]

 The middle or center of the set of data

 To compute, arrange the scores from lowest to highest. If N is odd, the median is the
value of the middle term, N  1 th term. If N is even, there are 2 middle terms; N th and
2 2
the next term. The median is the average of these values.

Example:

1. A = 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 11, 12 What is the middle score?

~
n = 7; X  X n 1  X 7 1  X 4  10
2 2
~
 X  10
 1. B = 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12. What is the median score?

X n  X n2 X 6  X 6 2
~ X3  X4 6  8
n = 6; X 2 2  2 2 =  7
2 2 2 2
~
 X 7

The Mode [ X̂ ]

 Most frequent score that appears

 It locates the point where the observation values occur with the greatest density.
 It does not always exist, and if does, it may not be unique.
 Unimodal - set of data with only one mode.
 Bimodal -set of data with two modes.
 Multimodal -set of data with more than two
modes.
 It is not affected by extreme values.
 It can be used for qualitative as well as quantitative data.

Examples: Identify the mode(s) of the following data sets.

1. 2 5 2 3 5 2 1
X̂  2

2. 1 2 3 3 2 1 4
X̂  1, 2, and 3

3. Red Blue White Yellow Blue Pink Green

X̂  Blue

Measures of Position

These are used to describe the standing or place occupied by a data value relative to the
rest of the data.

Quantiles or Fractiles, are natural extension of the median concept in that they are values which
divides a set of data into equal parts.

Common Quantiles
Quartiles [Qm], divides the set of data into 4 equal parts.

Deciles [Dm], divides the set of data into 10 equal parts.

 Percentiles [Pm], divides the set of data into 100 equal parts.

UNGROUPED DATA
General Procedure for Finding Percentiles.
Evaluate the position of Pm at m N 
100
m
a) If m N  is a whole number, then the location of the Pm = N  + 0.5,
100 100
so Pm is halfway between the data values in position.
b) If m N  is not a whole number, then the location of the P m = next higher whole
100
number. The Percentile Pm is the value in this location.

(This rule also applies to other quantiles since all points of position can be solved in terms of
percentile.)

Examples:

Determine the values of P20, P50, Q1, and D4 of the given data:

5, 6, 6, 8, 20, 15, 14, 16, 18, 11, 13, 14, 16, 9, 8, 10.

Solutions:

Arrange the scores (L – H):

5, 6, 6, 8, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 14, 15, 16, 16, 18, 20

20
1. P20 is at ( 16 ) = 3.2 which is not a whole number, so take the next higher whole
100
number as the position. P20 is the 4th score.  P20 = 8. This implies that 20% of
the set of scores is below 8 or 80% is above 8.

50
2. P50 is at ( 16 ) = 8 which is a whole number, so take the position halfway the 8 th and 9th
100
8 th  9 th 11  13
scores.  P50 =   12 .
2 2

1
3. Q1 is at ( 16 ) = 4 which is a whole number, so take the position between the 4 th and 5th
4
4 th  5 th 8  8
scores.  Q1 =  8
2 2
 4
4. D4 is at ( 16 ) = 6.4 which is not a whole number, so take the next higher whole number
10
as the position. D4 is the 7th score.
 D4 = 10

9
5. D9 is at ( 16 ) = 14.4 which is not a whole number, so take the 15th score.
10
 D9 = 18

Measures of Dispersion
The measures of absolute dispersion are expressed in the units of the original
observations.

COMMON MEASURES

Ungrouped Data:

Range
The difference between the highest score and the lowest score.
R =HS – LS
Example:
The IQ scores of 5 Accountancy students are 108, 112, 130, 115, and 105. Find the
range.
Range = R = 130 – 105 = 25

Population Variance (  2 ) and Standard Deviation (  )

  X i  
2

2

N

where  is the population mean;  = X =

Xi
N

 X i   
2

N
2
Sample Variance (s ) and Standard Deviation (s)

 X i  X   X i  X 
2 2
2
s  s
N 1 N 1
Example:
Given the scores: 105, 108, 112, 115, and 130. Solve the variance and standard
deviation

Xi
X i  X 2
105 81
108 36
112 4
115 1
130 256
X = 114
 X i  X 2 = 378

  X i  
2

2 378
Population variance =    75.6
N 5

 X i   
2
378
Population S.D. =     75.6  8.69
N 5

  X i  
2
2 378
Sample variance = s    94.5
N 1 4

 X i   
2
378
Sample S.D. = s   94.5  9.72
N 1 4

Interquartile Range
It is the difference between the first quartile and the third quartile.
IQR = Q3 - Q1

Quartile Deviation or Semi - Interquartile Range

It is the amount of dispersion present in the middle 50% of the values of a distribution.
Q3  Q1
QD =
2
Given the scores: 105, 108, 112, 115, and 130. Solve the Interquartile range and quartile
deviation.

Q3 = 115 Q1 = 108

IQR = 115-108 = 7

Q3  Q1 115  108
QD =   3.5
2 2
 Measures of Skewness

Measures the deviation from the symmetry

3 x  median
Sample: SK =
s

Population: SK = 3   median


1. SK is positive, the distribution is positively skewed.

2. SK is negative, the distribution is negative skewed.

Example:
How skewed is the set of scores: 30, 33, 35, 35, 36 and 40?

x  34.83, ~
x  35,   3.02, s  3.31
3 34.83  35
SK (sample) =   0.151 ,
3.31

3 34.83  35
SK (population) =   0.165 , negatively skewed
3.02

NORMAL DISTRIBUTION

Properties of a normal curve:

1. It is symmetrical about the mean.
2. The mean is equal to the median, which is also equal to the mode.
3. The tails or ends are asymptotic relative to the horizontal line.
4. The total area under the normal curve is equal to 1 or 100%.
5. The normal curve area may be subdivided into at least three standard scores each to the left
and to the right of the vertical axis.

Area to the Area to the

left is 0.5 right is 0.5

  

THE STANDARD NORMAL RANDOM VARIABLE

A normal random variable x is standardized by expressing its value as the number of
standard deviation () it lies to the left or right of its mean (). The standardized normal random
variables (z) is defined as.
Z = x -  or equivalently x =  + z.

Z= x-x
s

x
z
 0
Normal curve of a particular variable, x Standardized normal curve of the
particular variable where the x
values are converted to z values.
Note:
1. When x is less than the mean, the value of z is negative.
2. When x is greater than the mean, the value of z is positive.
3. When x = mean, the value of z = 0

Examples:
1. The mean and the standard deviation on an examination are 70 and 10 respectively. Find the
scores in standard units of the students receiving the marks
a) 65
Solution: x  70 , s = 10

65  70
Z=  0.50
10
2. Referring to the preceding problem, find the marks corresponding to the standards scores
a) -1
Solution: x =  + z.
x = 70 + (-1)(10)
= 60

b) 0.5
Solution: x = 70 + (0.5)(10)
= 75
3. Find the area under the standard normal curve which lies:
a) to the right of z = 0.56

Solution:
Let X be the area under the standard normal curve.

z=0.56

X = 0.5 – P(z = 0.56)

= 0.5 – 0.2123
= 0.2877

b) to the right of z = -0.75

z = -0.75

X = 0.5 + P(Z = -0.75)

= 0.5 + 0.2734
= 0.7734