Descriptive Statistics Flashcards
What is a measure of central tendency
A measurement that provides an average score from within the data set
eg. mean, median and mode
What is a measure of dispersion
A measurement that provides insight into how spread out the data is, smaller dispersion implies more reliable data with fewer anomalies
eg, range and standard deviation
What is the mean
The average that is shown by all of the scores in the data set divided by the number of scores in the data set
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the mean
+ representative of all of the data scores as all are included
- can be easily skewed by anomalous results
What is the median
The mid-point in a set of data that has been placed in order
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the median
+ it is not affected by anomalies
- unrepresentative of all data points as it only focuses on the middle of the data set
What is the mode
The most common value within a set of data
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the mode
+ is not influenced by extreme values
- unrepresentative of all data points as it focuses on most frequent values
What is the range
A value of representing the difference between the lowest and highest scores
Affected by extreme values and doesn’t account for dispersion
What is standard deviation
The variation of results from the mean score
Can hide the extreme values of a data set
