MEASURES OF DISPERSION AND POSITION

Instructor: Genaro Ardina, LPT

 OBJECTIVE

• At the end of the chapter, the students are able to;

1] Compute the different measures of dispersion for both grouped and

ungrouped data.
2] Solve and interpret quartiles, deciles, and percentiles.
3] Compute and interpret the coefficient of variation, coefficient of
skewness, and kurtosis.
 Introduction
• Another important characteristic of a data is how it is distributed, or how
far each element is from some measure of central tendency (average).
• There are several ways to measure the variability of the data, and the most
common and important is the standard deviation.
• Standard deviation is a statistical term that provides a good indication of
volatility (In finance, volatility is the degree of variation of a trading price
series over time). It measures how widely values are dispersed from
average.
• Dispersion is the difference between the actual value and the average
value.
• This lesson also include other measures of Dispersion and
Location/Position.
 A] MEASURES OF DISPERSION

• 1] RANGE
• -Probably the simplest and easiest way to determine measure of
dispersion is the range. The range is the difference of the highest
value and the lowest value in the data set.

• Example: The rates of o sample of eight employees at GMS Inc. are

P550, P420, P560, P500, P700, P670. P860, P480. Find the range.
• 2] AVERAGE DEVIATION
• In statistics, the average deviation of an element of data is the
absolute difference between that element and a given point. Typically
the point from which the deviation is measured is a measure of
central tendency. It is a summary statistic of statistical dispersion or
variability. It is also called the mean absolute deviation.
• Is given by
ഥ
σ | 𝒙 − 𝒙| σ | 𝑥 − 𝜇|
𝑨𝑫 = or 𝐴𝐷 =
𝒏 𝑁
 AVERAGE DEVIATION
• Example: The rates of o sample of eight employees at GMS Inc. are
P550, P420, P560, P500, P700, P670. P860, P480. Find the average
deviation.
AVERAGE DEVIATION
• 3] VARIANCE AND STANDARD DEVIATION
• Standard deviation is calculated as a square root of variance.
• The more spread apart the data, the higher the standard deviation.
• For ungrouped data is given by:

or
 3] VARIANCE AND STANDARD DEVIATION
• Example: The rates of o sample of eight employees atGMS Inc. are
P550, P420, P560, P500, P700, P670. P860, P480. Find the variance
and standard deviation.
• Solution:
Step 4: Apply the formula
• For grouped data is given by:
• Example: Determine the variance and standard deviation of the
frequency distribution on the ages of 50 people taking travel tour.
SOLUTION:
Step 4: Solve the value of the mean
 Step 8: Apply the formula for variance and standard deviation

σ 𝑓 𝑥 − 𝑥ҧ 2 8827.38
2 σ 𝑓 𝑥−𝑥ҧ 2
𝑠 = = = 180.15 S𝐷 = = 180.15 = 13.42
𝑛−1 50 − 1 𝑛−1

Thus, the variance and standard deviation of the frequency distribution is 180.15
and 13.42 respectively.
 B] MEASURES OF POSITION/LOCATION
• 1] QUARTILE – Split the data into four equal parts
• 2] DECILE – Split the data into 10 equal parts
• 3] PERCENTILE- Split the data into 100 equal parts
• For ungrouped data

𝑘(𝑁 + 1) 𝑘(𝑁 + 1) 𝑘(𝑁 + 1)

𝑄𝑘 = 𝐷𝑘 = 𝑃𝑘 =
4 10 100
• EXAMPLE:
• Find the first quartile, 2nd quartile, 3rd quartile, 5th decile, and 50th
percentile of the ages of 9 middle management employees of a
certain company. The ages are 53, 45, 59, 48, 54, 46, 51, 58, and 55.
• For Grouped data 2] DECILE
1] QUARTILE 𝒌𝑵
− 𝒄𝒇
𝑫𝑲 = 𝑳𝑩 + ( 𝟏𝟎 )(𝒊)
𝒇

3] PERCENTILE
𝒌𝑵
− 𝒄𝒇
𝑷𝑲 = 𝑳𝑩 + ( 𝟏𝟎𝟎 )(𝒊)
𝒇
• STEPS
• 1] Construct Cumulative Frequency column in the table
𝑘𝑁 𝑘𝑁 𝑘𝑁
• 2] Determine the class using the formula 𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑟
4 10 100
• 3] Identify the class by locating the rank in the table
• 4] Determine the values of 𝐿𝐵, 𝑐𝑓, 𝑓, 𝑖, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑁.
• 5] Apply the formula
•
• EXAMPLE:
• Determine the 𝑄1 , 𝐷3 , 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑃75 of the frequency distribution on the
ages of 50 people taking travel tours.
 COEFFICIENT OF VARIATION
• Coefficient of variation shows a variation relative to the mean.
• It is used to compare two or more groups of distribution scores.
• The coefficient of variation is denoted by CV, is the standard deviation
divided by the mean.
• The result is expressed as a percentage.

For Sample: For Population:

𝑺𝑫 𝝈
𝑪𝑽 = 𝟏𝟎𝟎% 𝑪𝑽 = 𝟏𝟎𝟎%
ഥ
𝒙 𝝁
• EXAMPLE:
• Find the coefficient of variation of the given data below:
SECTION A SECTION B SECTION C
𝑋ത = 15.42 𝑋ത = 15.33 𝑋ത = 14.17

𝑆𝐷 = 3.75 𝑆𝐷 = 2.35 𝑆𝐷 = 4.04

Interpretation:

The 𝑪𝑽𝑨 𝑖𝑠 24.32% 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑪𝑽𝑩 𝑖𝑠 15.33% 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑪𝑽𝑪 𝑖𝑠 28.51%

which means that the scores in Section B are less scattered than in
section A and section C.
 Interpretation and Uses of Standard Deviation
• The Russian Mathematician Pafnuty Lvovich Chebychev (1821-1894)
developed a theorem that specifies the proportions of the spread in
terms of the standard deviation.
• Chebychev’s Theorem. For any set of observations, the proportion of
the values that lie within k standard deviations of the mean is at least
1
1 − 2 , 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑘 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 1.
𝑘

Minimum value Maximum value

𝝁 + 𝒌𝝈 𝝁 − 𝒌𝝈
• EXAMPLE:
• The mean price of laptop computer is P25,000 and the standard
deviation is P2500. Find the price range for which at least 88.89% of
the laptop will sell.
 KURTOSIS
• Kurtosis is from Greek word kyrtos or kurtos, meaning bulging.
• In statistics kurtosis is a statistical measure used to describe the
distribution of observed data around the mean.
• It measures the relative peakedness or flatness of a distribution.
• It is given by;
• TYPES OF KURTOSIS
• 1] LEPTOKURTIC – Kurtosis is greater than zero. It denotes a high
degree of peakedness.
• 2] MESOKURTIC- Kurtosis is equal to zero. Neither too peak nor too
flat.
• 3] PLATYKURTIC- Kurtosis is lesser than zero. It denotes low degree of
peakedness.
GEOMETRICALLY
• Example:
• The daily rates of a sample of eight employees at GMS Inc. are P550,
P420, P560, P500, P700, P670, P860, P480. Determine the kurtosis
and describe the type.
• Solution:
• Step 1: Compute the mean of the data set.
• Step 2: Subtract the mean from each of the value in the data set
• Step 3: Square the 𝑥 − 𝑥ҧ
• Step 4: Solve for the standard deviation
σ(𝑥−𝑥)ҧ 2
• 𝑆𝐷 = = 142.90
𝑛−1
𝑥−𝑥ҧ
• Step 5: Obtain the values of
𝑆𝐷
𝑥−𝑥ҧ 4
• Step 6: Compute for the values of ( ) , get the sum
𝑆𝐷
 𝑥−𝑥ҧ 4
Step 6: Compute for the values of ( ) , get the sum
𝑆𝐷
• Step 7: Apply the formula

INTERPRETATION:
Since the kurtosis is 0.3724 which is greater than zero but is closer to
zero. We can conclude that the distribution of the daily rates of
employee is somewhat leptokurtic.
 SKEWNESS

• Measures of skewness describes the degree of departure of scores

from the symmetry. The skewness only tells about the performance of
the students, but not reasons about their performance.
• It is given by:
3(𝑥ҧ − 𝑥෥ )
𝑆𝐾 =
𝑆𝐷
Types of Distribution

SK = 0

SK >0

SK < 0
GEOMETRICALLY
• EXAMPLE:
• 1] Find the coefficient of skewness of the scores of 30 Grade IX
students in a 45-item test in mathematics. The mean is 38.50, the
median is 35.25 and the standard deviation is 2.50.
• 2] A motorcycle dealership pays its salesperson a salary plus a
commission on sales. The mean monthly commission is P8, 800, the
median P9,000, and the standard deviation P1200. determine the
coefficient of skewness. Comment on the shape of distribution.
 OUTLIERS

• An outlier is an observation point that is distant from other

observation that lies outside the overall pattern of a distribution.
• A data set should be checked for extremely high or extremely low
values called outlier.
• An outlier may indicate experimental error, thus sometimes excluded
from the data set.
• One method in determining the outliers is when a data value in a data
set is less 𝑸𝟏 − 𝟏. 𝟓(𝑰𝑸𝑹) or greater than 𝑸𝟑 + 𝟏. 𝟓(𝑰𝑸𝑹).
• Where the Inter-quartile Range (IQR) = 𝑸𝟑 − 𝑸𝟏 .
Reference:
• Gabuyo, Y., & Dy, G. 2013. Assessment of Learning II. Manila, Philippines: Rex Bookstore, Inc.
• Sirug, S. 2015. Basic Probability and Statistics a Step by Step Approach. Manila, Philippines:
Mindshapers Co., Inc.