What is central tendency?

Explain
three important measures of central
tendency?
•
Measures of central tendency are scores that
represent the center of the distribution.
•
Three of the most common measures of central
tendency are:
–
Mean
–
Median
–
Mode
 The Mean
The mean is the arithmetic average of the scores.

–
Mean is the average of the scores in a distribution

_  Xi
_________
i
X =
N
 Mean Example
Exam Scores

75 82 72 68 89
X sum all scores
91 78 94 88 75 n = total number of
scores for the sample
•
Pros Pros and cons of using mean
–
Summarizes data in a way that is easy to understand.
–
Uses all the data
–
Used in many statistical applications
•
Cons
–
Affected by extreme values
•
E.g., average salary at a company
–
12,000; 12,000; 12,000; 12,000; 12,000; 12,000;
12,000; 12,000; 12,000; 12,000; 20,000; 390,000
–
Mean = $44,167
 Median

•
The middle score of the distribution when all the scores
have been ranked.

•
If there are an even number of scores, the median is the
average of the two middle scores.
 Central Tendency Example:
Median
• 52, 76, 100, 136, 186, 196, 205, 150, 257, 264,
264, 280, 282, 283, 303, 313, 317, 317, 325, 373,
384, 384, 400, 402, 417, 422, 472, 480, 643, 693,
732, 749, 750, 791, 891
• The median is the middle value when observations
are ordered.
– To find the middle, count in (N+1)/2 scores when
observations are ordered lowest to highest.
• Median hotel rate:
– (35+1)/2 = 18
– 317
 Median (con’t)
2 Number of Words Recalled in Performance Study
2
3
3
4
4
4
4
4
10
 Pros and Cons of Median

• Pros • Cons
– Not influenced by – May not exist in the
extreme scores or data.
skewed distributions. – Doesn’t take actual
– Good with ordinal data. values into account.
– Easier to compute than
the mean.
 The mode.

The mode is the score with the highest frequency of occurrences.

It is the easiest score to spot in a distribution.

It is the only way to express the central tendency of a nominal

level variable.
 Mode (con’t)

2
2 Number of Words Recalled in Performance Study
3
3 The mode is 4.
4
4
4
4
4
10
 Mode (con’t)

72 72 73 76 78
81 83 85 85 86
87 88 90 91 92

This distribution is bimodal.

Demonstration
 Red Blue Green Yellow

Yellow Green Blue Red

Green Red Yellow Blue

 Pros and Cons of the Mode

Pros Cons
 Good for nominal data.  Ignores most of the
 Good when there are information in a
two “typical” scores. distribution.
 Easiest to compute and  Small samples may not
understand. have a mode.
 The score comes from
the data set.
 Scales of Measurement
•
Nominal scale = mode
•
Ordinal scale = median
•
Interval(Discrete) scale = mean,
median, or mode
•
Ratio(Continuous) scale = mean,
median, or mode
 What is dispersion?
Explain two important measures of
dispersion.
Measures of Dispersion
 Why Study Dispersion?
 An average, such as the mean or the median, only locates the
centre of the data
 An average does not tell us anything about the spread of the
data
 A small value for a measure of dispersion indicates that the data
are clustered closely (the mean is therefore representative of the data)
 A large measure of dispersion indicates that the mean is not
reliable (it is not representative of the data)

47 48 49 50 51 52 53 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56
Daily Computer Production Daily Computer Production
 WHAT IS DISPERSION?
 Dispersion is the measure of the variation of
the items.

Measures of Dispersion are -
Range Quartile Deviation
Mean Deviation
Standard Deviation Variance
 The Range
 The simplest measure of dispersion is the range
 For ungrouped data, the range is the difference
between the highest and lowest values in a set of
data.
 RANGE = Highest Value - Lowest Value

 The range only takes into account the most

extreme values
 This may not be representative of the population
 The Range Example
 RANGE = Highest Value - Lowest Value
 EXAMPLE: A sample of five accounting
graduates revealed the following starting
salaries: $22,000, $28,000, $31,000,
$23,000, $24,000.

 The range is $31,000 - $22,000 = $9,000.

 Mean Deviation
 The mean deviation takes into consideration
all of the values
 Mean Deviation: The arithmetic mean of the
absolute values of the deviations from the
arithmetic mean. xx
MD 

n
Where: X = the value of each observation X = the arithmetic mean of the values
n = the number of observations || = the absolute value (the signs of the deviations are disregarded)
 Frequency Distribution Mean Deviation

 If the data are in the form of a frequency

distribution, the mean deviation can be
calculated using the following
_
formula:
MD 
 f | xx|
f

Where: f = the frequency of an observation x

n = f = the sum of the frequencies
 Frequency Distribution MD
Example
 Exercise
Number of
outstanding Frequency fx |x-x| f|x-x|
accounts

0 1 0 2 2
1 9 9 1 9
2 7 14 0 0
3 3 9 1 3
4 4 16 2 8
Total: 24 fx = 48  f|x-x| = 22
_
_
x
 fx mean = 48/24 = 2 MD 
 f |xx|
f f
MD = 22/24 = 0.92
 Standard Deviation
 Standard deviation is the most commonly
used measure of dispersion
 Similar to the mean deviation, the standard
deviation takes into account the value of
every observation
 The values of the mean deviation and the
standard deviation should be relatively
similar
 3.3 Standard Deviation
A. Standard Deviation for Ungrouped Data

For a set of ungrouped data x1, x2, …, xn,

( x1  x) 2  ( x2  x) 2      ( xn  x) 2
Standard deviation  
n
n
 f i ( x1  x)
2

 i 1
n

where x is the mean and n is the total number of data.

Notes:

1. Two sets of data may have the same mean but different standard deviations.

2. The larger the standard deviation, the more spread out the data is.

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 3.3 Standing Deviation
B. Standard Deviation for Grouped Data

For a set of grouped, we have to consider the frequency of each datum.

f1 ( x1  x ) 2  f 2 ( x2  x) 2      f n ( xn  x) 2
Standard deviation  
f1  f 2      f n
n
 f i ( x1  x) 2
 i 1
n
 fi
i 1

where f i is the frequency of the ith group of data, x is the mean and
n is the total number of data.

27
Variance = Square Root of Standard
Deviation

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