Descriptive statistics

Question 1

Strengths of mean (cymedr)

Answer 1

• Necessary for further statistical analysis like standard deviation
• always found when using ordinal or above level data

Question 2

Weaknesses of mean (cymedr)

Answer 2

-Influenced by anomalous results
- it may produce a nonsense value, not in original data set

Question 3

Strengths of median (canolrif)

Answer 3

• not influenced by anomalous results
• can always be found when using ordinal or above level data

Question 4

Weaknesses of median (canolrif)

Answer 4

• not useful in further statistical analysis.
• may produce nonsense value, not in original data set

Question 5

Strengths of mode (modd)

Answer 5

• can be used for data measured on a nominal scale and is not nonsense value.
• value has definitely occurred in data set.

Question 6

Weaknesses of mode (modd)

Answer 6

• may be more than 1 result, or no result if data set is varied
• may not display what is occurring in centre of the data set, if there is a skewed distribution

Question 7

Strengths of range (amrediad)

Answer 7

• relatively easy to calculate
• indicated consistency/reliability of data

Question 8

Weaknesses of range (amrediad)

Answer 8

• influenced by anomalous results, which limits validity

Question 9

Strengths of standard deviation

Answer 9

• more sophisticated measure of dispersion which reflects every score in data set
• gives an indication of how close the majority of scores are to the mean in normal distribution

Question 10

Weaknesses of standard deviation

Answer 10

• time consuming to calculate.
• not all scores will be within one standard deviation so it can be misleading when it comes to anomalies

Question 11

Measures of central tendency

Answer 11

Estimation of a midpoint/average in set of data.
Mean, median, mode

Question 12

Measures of dispersion

Answer 12

Shows spread of data.
Range, standard deviation