Topic 4

Measures
of
Dispersion
Three students are named finalists in the search for A-1 Student of the Year. The evaluation papers
revealed the following scores of the students in five different areas:

Student A 97, 92, 96, 95, 90

In a contest like this, the statistic that is most
appropriate to use is the mean. The one with the
Student B 94, 94, 92, 94, 96 highest means wins.
The mean scores of the three students however, are

Student C 95, 94, 93, 96, 92

the same – 94.

What would be the next thing to do without

considering new data from these students?

Statistics other than the mean may provide additional information from the same data. These statistics are
the measures of dispersion.
 What is Measure of dispersion?

Measure of dispersion or variability refer to the spread of

the values about the mean. These are important quantities used by
statisticians in evaluation. Intuitively, a smaller dispersion of
scores arising from the comparison often indicates more
consistency and more reliability.

There are at least three measures of dispersion, namely range,

mean deviation, and standard deviation.
 • The Range

- The quickest way to determine the dispersion of scores is through the computation of the range because it is the
easiest measure to compute.

- Range is simply the difference of the highest (��) and lowest (��) scores in a set of data under
consideration.

The range of the data is �� = �� − �� where �� = range �� = highest core in the data set �� =
lowest score in the data set.

- The range is the most unstable because its value easily fluctuates with the change in either the highest or lowest
scores.

- It is also considered the most unreliable because it does not give the dispersion or spread of the scores between
the two extreme values. A more reliable measure should involve all the values in a distribution to provide us an
adequate spread of all the scores from the average.
 Example 1 (Finding the range of the data set)
The range of each of the set of scores of the three students is as follows:

Student A 97, 92, 96, 95, 90 �� = 97, �� = 90, �� = 97 − 90 = 7

Student B 94, 94, 92, 94, 96 �� = 96, �� = 92, �� = 96 − 92 = 4

Student C 95, 94, 93, 96, 92 �� = 96, �� = 92, �� = 96 − 92 = 4

 • The Mean Deviation

- The mean deviation considers all the variables in each distribution.

- The smaller the mean deviation implies better consistency because the scores
deviate from the average slightly.

i. Computation of the Mean Deviation for Ungrouped Data

The mean deviation of ungrouped data is computed using the formula

���� =∑|�� − ��̅|
�� where ���� = mean deviation ��̅= mean �� = individual item
�� = number of items under observation .
 Example 2 (Finding the mean deviation of an ungrouped data)

Find the mean deviation of Student B and C. Which of performance is better?

Student B 97, 92, 96, 95, 90

Student C 95, 94, 93, 96, 92

Student B: Student C:
��̅ =97 + 92 + 96 + 95 + 90
��̅ =95 + 94 + 93 + 96 + 92
���� =∑|�� − ��̅| ��
���� =∑|�� − ��̅| ��
5=470
5=470 5= ����
5= ����
=|95 − 94| + |94 − 94| + |93 − 94| + |96 − 94| + |92 − 94|
=|97 − 94| + |92 − 94| + |96 − 94| + |95 − 94| + |90 − 94|
5 =|1| + |0| + |−1| + |2| + |−2|
5=|3| + |−2| + |2| + |1| + |−4|
5=1 + 0 + 1 + 2 + 2
5=3 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 4
5=65= ��. ��
5=125= ��. ��

The smaller the mean deviation implies the better consistency because the scores deviate from the average
slightly. Hence, student C’s performance is better.
• Standard Deviation and Variance

- The most important measure of dispersion is the standard deviation.

- The standard deviation is used to determine how far the data are from the mean. If the values are clustered tightly
about their mean, the standard deviation is small and if the values become more and more scattered about their mean,
the standard deviation for these sets is large.

- Like the mean deviation, standard deviation differentiates sets of scores with equal averages. But the advantage of
standard deviation has several applications in inferential statistics.

- Standard Deviation is calculated as the square root of variance.

- The standard deviation (and the variance) show whether or not the scores are grouped closely around the mean of the
distribution.

- The symbols for sample and population variances are ��2and ��2respectively. Variance is frequently discussed
by researchers as an indicator of how much variability there is in an entire distribution of scores.
 Computation of Standard Deviation and Variance for Ungrouped Data

• The population standard deviation (��) and variance of a population ( ��2) for ungrouped data can be computed from
the formula:
������ =∑(�� − ��)��
�� = √��(�� − ��)��
��
where �� = population standard deviation ��2= variance of a population �� = values of the observations �� =
population mean
�� = total number of observations in the population
• The sample standard deviation (��) and sample variance ( ��2) for ungrouped data can be computed from the formula:
�� − ������ =∑(�� − ��̅)��
�� = √��(�� − ��̅)��
where �� = sample standard deviation ��2= variance of a sample �� = values of the observations ��̅= sample
mean
�� − ��
�� = total number of observations in the sample .
Example 4 (Finding the standard deviation and variance of an ungrouped data)

Find the standard deviation and variance of the following sample data:

Score (��) (�� − ��̅) (�� − ��̅)��

7 -3 9
8 -2 4
10 0 0
12 2 4
13 3 9
Total: 26
 Solution:

Since the data is a sample data, we will get the sample standard deviation and sample variance.

�� = 5 ��̅=7+8+10+12+13
5= 10
�� = √��(�� − ��̅)��
�� − ��= √����
�� − ��= √������= √��. �� = ��. ����
���� =∑(�� − ��̅)��
�� − ��=������= ��. ��

Thus, the sample standard deviation is 2.55 and the sample variance is 6.5
THE END
 GROUP 4
GABRIEL DIAZ
KEI ALLYSA ALEGARBES
MA. EDELISA LLENA
REZA CAMELLO
MARY DONNABELL SEJUELA
MARIZ NAVARRETE
EVA MAE PARANTAR