Data analysis Flashcards
What is descriptive statistics?
Descriptive statistics describe/ summarise / present data
What are the measures of central tendency?
mean, median and mode
What are the strengths of the mean?
The most representative measure as it considers the weight of each individual scores
What are the weaknesses of the mean?
It is the most easily distorted, the most sensitive
If there is an anomaly, the mean would be dragged upwards/downwards
What are the strengths of the median?
It is less sensitive so if there are anomalies it is less affected
What are the weaknesses of the median?
It is less representative than the mean as it doesn’t consider the weight of each score, only the order
What are the strengths of the mode?
Can be used when the data is discrete (not continuous)
What are the weaknesses of the mode?
It is less representative
It doesn’t consider the weighting of other categories
What are the measures of dispersion?
Range - highest score - the lowest score
Standard deviation - a single value that shows how far the score deviates from the mean
What are the strengths of standard deviation?
Represents all the data rather than just the highest/lowest score
It gives an indication of how spread/dispersed the data is
