

MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY & MEASURES

OF DISPERSION
 OBJECTIVES

 Describe measures of central tendency
 Enumerate the main measures of central tendency
 Appreciate the relevance of Statistics in Research
 PRETEST

1.) It is the value of the data that occupies the middle
position when the data are ranked in order according to
size.
A. Variance deviation
B. Two-tailed analysis of variance
C. Quartertile
D. median
 
 2.) What do you call the mean of all x values for the
entire population?
A. Standard deviation
B. Quartertile
C. Frequency distribution
D. population mean, m
 
 3.) This is a data point that differs significantly from
other observations, it may be due to variability in the
measurement
A. outlier
B. One-tailed analysis of variance
C. Frequency
D. Quartertile
 
 4.) The number of children, x, belonging to each of
eight families registering for swimming was 1, 2, 1, 3, 2,
1,5, 3. Find the mean.
A. 0.03
B. 34
C. 2.25
D. 5
 
 5.) is the value of x that occurs most frequently.
A. One-tailed analysis of variance
B. Sample variance
C. mode
D. Chi-square
2.3: Measures of Central
Tendency

 Numerical values used to locate the middle of a set
of data, or where the data is clustered.
 The term average is often associated with all
measures of central tendency.
Mean: The type of average with which you are
probably most familiar. The mean is the sum of all the
values divided by the total number of values, n.

1 n 
1
x   xi  ( x1  x2   xn )
n i 1 n
Note:
1. The population mean, m, (lowercase mu, Greek
alphabet), is the mean of all x values for the entire
population.
2. We usually cannot measure m but would like to
estimate its value.
3. A physical representation: the mean is the value
that balances the weights on the number line.
Example: The data below represents the number of
accidents in each of the last 6 years at a dangerous
intersection.
8, 9, 3, 5, 2, 6, 4, 5

Find the mean number of accidents.

Solution:
1
x  (8  9  3  5  2  6  4  5)  5.25
8
Note: In
1 the data above, change 6 to 26.
x (8  9  3  5  2  26  4  5)  7.75
8

The mean can be greatly influenced by outliers.

 Exercise #1:

Scores of 15 students in Research 8 quiz consist of 25 items.


The highest score is 25 and the lowest score is 10. Here are
the scores: 25, 20, 18, 18, 17, 15, 15, 15, 14, 14, 13, 12, 12,
10, 10. Find the mean in the following scores.

x (scores)
25 14
20 14
18 13
18 12
17 12
15 10
15 10
15
Median: The value of the data that occupies the middle
position when the data are ranked in order according to
size.

Note: ~
x

1. Denoted by “x tilde” :
2. The population median, M (uppercase mu, Greek
alphabet), is the data value in the middle
position of the entire population.

To find the median:

1. Rank the data. x )  n 1
d (~
2
2. Determine the depth of the median.
3. Determine the value of the median.
Example: Find the median for the set of data
{4, 8, 3, 8, 2, 9, 2, 11, 3}.

Solution:
1.

Rank the data:~ 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 8, 8, 9, 11
d ( x )  (9 1)/ 2  5
2. Find the depth:
3. The median is~the fifth number from either end
in the 4
ranked xdata:

Suppose the data set is {4, 8, 3, 8, 2, 9, 2, 11, 3, 15}.

1. d ( ~x )2,2,(103, 3,
Rank the data: 1) /4,2 8,5.8,5 9, 11, 15
2. Find the depth:
3. The median is halfway between the fifth and
sixth observations:
~
x  (4  8)/ 2  6
 
 Exercise #1
Find the median score of 8 students in an Advanced Statistics class.
x (score)
30
19
17
16
15
10
5
2
Mode: The mode is the value of x that occurs most
frequently.
It is classified as unimodal, bimodal, trimodal or multimodal

Exercise: Scores of 10 students in Section A, Section B and Section C.

Scores of Section A Scores of Section B Scores of Section C

25 25 25
24 24 25
24 24 25
20 20 22
20 18 21
20 18 21
16 17 21
12 10 18
10 9 18
7 7 18
Midrange: The number exactly midway between a
lowest value data L and a highest value data H. It is
found by averaging the low and the high values.

L H
midrange 
2
Example: Consider the data set {12.7, 27.1, 35.6, 44.2,
18.0}.

The midrange is

L  H 12.7  44.2
midrange   2845
.
2 2
Note:
1. When rounding off an answer, a common rule-
of-thumb is to keep one more decimal place in the
answer than was present in the original data.
2. To avoid round-off buildup, round off only the
final answer, not intermediate steps.
2.4: Measures of
Dispersion 
 Measures of central tendency alone cannot
completely characterize a set of data. Two very
different data sets may have similar measures of
central tendency.
 Measures of dispersion are used to describe the
spread, or variability, of a distribution.
 Common measures of dispersion: range, variance, and
standard deviation.
Range: The difference in value between the highest-
valued (H) and the lowest-valued (L) pieces of data:

range H  L

Other measures of dispersion are based on the
following quantity.

Deviation
x x
from the Mean: A deviation from the mean,
, is
x the difference between the value of x and the
mean .
Example: Consider the sample {12, 23, 17, 15, 18}.
Find the range and each deviation from the mean.

Solution:
1

x  (12  2317 1518)  17 range H  L  2312  11
5

Data Deviation
x
_______________x x
12 -5
23 6
17 0
15 -2
18 1
 n
Note:  ( xi  x)  0 (Always!)
i 1


Mean Absolute Deviation: The mean of the absolute
values of the deviations from the mean:

1 n
Mean absolute deviation   | xi  x |
n i 1

For the previous example:

1 n 1 14

n i 1
| xi  x |  (5  6  0  2  1)   2.8
5 5
Sample Variance: The sample variance, s2, is the mean of
the squared deviations, calculated using n - 1 as the
divisor. 1
s2 
n 1
 ( x  x ) 2


where n is the sample size.

Note: The numerator for the sample variance is called the

sum of squares for x, denoted SS(x).
1
SS( x ) SS( x )   ( x  x )   x   x 
2 2 2
s 
2
n 1 where n

Standard Deviation: The standard deviation of a sample,

s, is the positive square root of the variance:
s  s2
Example: Find the variance and standard deviation for
the data {5, 7, 1, 3, 8}.
x  1(5 7 1 3 8)  48
.
5


1
2
s 
n 1
 ( x  x ) 2

s  s2
Note:
1. The shortcut formula for the sample variance:
 x 2

2
x2 
n
s 
n 1

2. The unit of measure for the standard deviation is the

same as the unit of measure for the data.
The unit of measure for the variance might then be
thought of as units squared.
 POST TEST

1.) This is often associated with all measures of central
tendency.
A. Variance deviation
B. Two-tailed analysis of variance
C. Quartertile
D. average
 
 2.) What do you call the mean of all x values for the
entire population?
A. Standard deviation
B. Quartertile
C. Frequency distribution
D. population mean, m
 
 3.) This is a data point that differs significantly from
other observations, it may be due to variability in the
measurement
A. outlier
B. One-tailed analysis of variance
C. Frequency
D. Quartertile
 
 4.) The number of children, x, belonging to each of
eight families registering for swimming was 1, 2, 1, 3, 2,
1,5, 3. Find the mean.
A. 0.03
B. 34
C. 2.25
D. 5
 
 5.) It is the mean of the squared deviations,
calculated using n - 1 as the divisor.
A. One-tailed analysis of variance
B. sample variance
C. T-test
D. Chi-square
 
THANK YOU!