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Normal Probability Curve

The normal probability curve is a bell-shaped curve that shows how characteristics like intelligence are distributed in a population. Most people's characteristics fall near the average, and fewer people have very high or very low characteristics. The normal curve was derived independently by Laplace and Gauss. It has several key characteristics: it is symmetrical, unimodal, and the mean, median and mode all coincide at the center point. As values move further from the center, their frequency decreases asymptotically towards zero.

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Vishakha Sankhala
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5K views

Normal Probability Curve

The normal probability curve is a bell-shaped curve that shows how characteristics like intelligence are distributed in a population. Most people's characteristics fall near the average, and fewer people have very high or very low characteristics. The normal curve was derived independently by Laplace and Gauss. It has several key characteristics: it is symmetrical, unimodal, and the mean, median and mode all coincide at the center point. As values move further from the center, their frequency decreases asymptotically towards zero.

Uploaded by

Vishakha Sankhala
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Normal Probability Curve

NORMAL PROBABILITY CURVE:


The literal meaning of the term normal is average. Most of the things
like intelligence, wealth, beauty, height etc. are quite equally
distributed. There are quite a few persons who deviate noticeably
from average, either above or below it. If we plot such a distribution
on a graph paper, we get a bell-shaped curve, referred to as Normal
Curve.

Normal curve was derived by Laplace and Gauss (1777-1855)


independently. They also named it ‘curve of error’, where ‘error’ is
used in the sense of a deviation from the normal, true value. In the
honour of Gauss, it is also known as Gaussian Curve’
The normal curve takes into account the law which states that
the greater the deviation from the mean or an average, the less
frequently it occurs. For e.g. in terms of Intelligence, it is rare to
find people with very low or very high intelligence. It’s
normally distributed in the population.

Normal Probability Curve or most popularly known as NPC.


Characteristics of Normal Probability Curve:- Some of the major
characteristics of normal probability curve are as follows:
1. The normal curve is symmetrical:- The Normal Probability Curve
(N.P.C.) is symmetrical about the ordinate of the central point of the
curve. It implies that the size, shape and slope of the curve on one side of
the curve is identical to that of the other. That is, the normal curve has a
bilateral symmetry. If the figure is to be folded along its vertical axis, the
two halves would coincide. In other words the left and right values to
the middle central point are mirror images.
2. The normal curve is unimodal:- Since there is only one point in the
curve which has maximum frequency, the normal probability curve is
unimodal, i.e. it has only one mode.
3. Mean, median and mode coincide:- The mean, median and mode of the
normal distribution are the same and they lie at the centre. [Mean =
Median = Mode]
4. The maximum ordinate occurs at the centre:- The maximum height of the
ordinate always occurs at the central point of the curve that is, at the mid-point.

5. The normal curve is asymptotic to the X-axis:- The Normal Probability


Curve approaches the horizontal axis asymptotically i.e., the curve continues to
decrease in height on both ends away from the middle point (the maximum
ordinate point); but it never touches the horizontal axis. It extends infinitely
in both directions i.e. from minus infinity (-∞) to plus infinity (+∞) as shown in
Figure. As the distance from the mean increases the curve approaches to the base
line more and more closely.
Skewness (Sk) which displays the lack of equality between
tails if one tail is extended longer than other tail. If one tail
gets stretched toward the left, there is a negatively skewed
distribution. If one tail is pulled toward the right, there will be
a positively skewed distribution (Johnson & Christensen,
2008).

A distribution is said to be “Skewed when the mean and


median fall at different points in the distribution and the
balance i.e. the point of center of gravity is shifted to one side
or the other to left or right. In a normal distribution the mean
equals the median exactly and there is no skewness.
Skewness:-
Distribution can be characterized by their skewness:- the nature and extent
to which symmetry is absent.
It is an indication of how the measurements in a distribution are distributed
There are two types of skewness which appear in the Normal Curve.
a) Positive Skewness
b) Negative Skewness
a) Positive Skewness:- Distributions are skewed positively or to the right,
when scores are massed at the low, i.e. the left end of the scale, and are
spread out gradually toward the right end.
b) Negative Skewness:- Distribution is said to be skewed negatively or to
the left, when scores are massed at the high end of the scale, i.e. the right
side of the curve, and are spread out gradually towards the low end i.e. the
left side of the curve.
Kurtosis:- Kurtosis (Ku) may be observed in a real distribution in
the percentage of scores that would be considered extreme.
Positive kurtosis is called leptokurtic. The flat distributions have
negative kurtosis are called platykurtic while the normal
distribution is defined as being in the middle called mesokurtic
(Cohen & Lea, 2004).

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