Descriptive Statistics Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the measures of central tendency?

A
  • Mean
  • Median
  • Mode
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2
Q

What is the mean?

A

The average that is shown by all scors in the data set when they are divided by n

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3
Q

What are the advantages/disadvantages of using a mean?

A

+Necessary for further statistical analysis e.g., standard deviation
+Can always by found when using ordinal or above data
-Influenced by anomalous results
-May produce ‘nonsense’ value not in the original data

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4
Q

What is the median?

A

The mid point in a set of data that has been placed in order

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5
Q

What are the advantages/disadvantages of using a median?

A

+Not influenced by anomalous results
+Can always be found when using ordinal or above level data
-Not useful in further statistical analysis
-May produce ‘nonsense’ value that is not in the original data set

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6
Q

What is the mode?

A

The most common value within a set of data

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7
Q

What are the advantages/disadvantages of using a mode?

A

+Can be used for data measured on a nominal scale and that is not a ‘nonsense’ value
+Value has definetly occured in the data set
-May be more than one, or no result if data is varied
-May not display what is occurring in the centre of the data set if there is a skewed disribution

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8
Q

What are the measures of dispersion?

A
  • Range
  • Standard deviation
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9
Q

What is the range?

A

A value that shows the spread of data, representing the difference between the lowest and highest scores

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10
Q

What are the advantages/disadvantages of using a range?

A

+Relatively easy to calculate
+Gives an indication about consistency/reliability of the data
-Is influenced by anomalous results; this is a problem because only the highest and lowest scores are considered in the calculation

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11
Q

What is the standard deviation?

A

A value that represents the amount of variation of results from the mean score

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12
Q

What are the advantages/disadvantages of using a standard deviation?

A

+More sophisticated measure of dispersion as every score is reflected in the data set
+Gives an indication of how close the majority of the scores are to the mean in a normal distribution
-Time consuming to calculate compared to the mean or range
-Not all scores will be within one standard deviation, so it can be misleading when it comes to anomalies

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