Measure of Central Tendency
Measure of Central Tendency
Tendency
Introduction:
• In statistics, a central tendency is a central value or a
typical value for a probability distribution.
• It is occasionally called an average or just the center
of the distribution.
• The most common measures of central tendency are
the arithmetic mean, the median and the mode.
• Measures of central tendency are defined for a
population(large set of objects of a similar nature) and
for a sample (portion of the elements of a population).
Some Definitions
Simpson and Kafka defined it as “ A measure of central
tendency is a typical value around which other figures
gather”
Waugh has expressed “An average stand for the whole
group of which it forms a part yet represents the whole”.
In layman’s term, a measure of central tendency is an
AVERAGE. It is a single number of value which can be
considered typical in a set of data as a whole.
Importance Of Central Tendency
• Direct Method :
where = mean
x = measurement or value
w = number of measurements
Example Of W.M
Harmonic Mean
• Harmonic mean is quotient of “number of the given values”
and “sum of the reciprocals of the given values”.
• For Ungrouped Data
X
13.2 0.0758
14.2 0.0704
14.8 0.0676
15.2 0.0658
16.1 0.0621
Total
Example: Calculate the harmonic mean for the given below:
x Log x
15 1.1761
12 1.0792
13 1.1139
19 1.2788
10 1.0000
Total 5.648
MEDIAN
Median
• The MEDIAN, denoted Md, is the middle value of the sample when the
data are ranked in order according to size.
• Connor has defined as “ The median is that value of the variable which
divides the group into two equal parts, one part comprising of all values
greater, and the other, all values less than median”
• For Ungrouped data median is calculated as:
• It is used when you want to find the value which occurs most
often.
• It is a quick approximation of the average.
• It is an inspection average.
• It is the most unreliable among the three measures of central
tendency because its value is undefined in some
observations.
Properties of Mean
1. Mean can be calculated for any set of numerical data, so it always exists.
2. A set of numerical data has one and only one mean.
3. Mean is the most reliable measure of central tendency since it takes into
account every item in the set of data.
4. It is greatly affected by extreme or deviant values (outliers)
5. It is used only if the data are interval or ratio.
Relations Between the Measures of Central
Tendency
• In negatively skewed
distributions, the mean is
smaller than the median
Conclusion