✓ Descriptive Statistics (AO1 + AO3) Flashcards
What are the 3 Measures of Central Tendency?
Mean
Median
Mode
How do you find the Mean?
add up every score in the data set and then divide by the number of scores
Strength of the Mean as a measure of central tendency?
- most representative bc includes the whole data set
Weakness of the Mean as a measure of central tendency?
- most sensitive measure which means that any anomalies can skew the data
How do you find the Median?
put all scores in order from smallest to biggest & then select the middle number
Strength of the Median as a measure of central tendency?
- not distorted by extreme scores like the mean
Weakness of the Median as a measure of central tendency?
- does not reflect all scores in the data set
How do you find the Mode?
identify the most frequently occurring score in the data set
Strength of the Mode as a measure of central tendency?
- not distorted by extreme scores & only average that can be used for nominal data
Weakness of the Median as a measure of central tendency?
- there can be more than one mode which isn’t the most useful
What are the 2 Measures of Dispersion?
Range
Standard Deviation
How do you find the Range?
subtract the lowest value from the highest value
Strength of Range as a measure of dispersion
- easy to calculate
Weakness of Range as a measure of dispersion
- does not indicate the distribution pattern across the whole data set
What is Standard Deviation?
a different measure of dispersion which looks at how far the scores deviate from the mean
- high SD = inconsistent data, spread out from the mean
- low SD = consistent data, highly clustered around the mean
(given in exam, don’t need to calculate)
