Descriptive Statistics- Measure of Central Tendency and Dispersion

Question 1

What is a measure of central tendency

Answer 1

General term for any measure of the average value in a set of data

Question 2

Mean

Answer 2

Arithmetic average calculated by adding up all the values in a set of data and dividing by the number

Question 3

Median

Answer 3

Central value in a set of data when values are arranged from lowest to highest

Question 4

Mode

Answer 4

The most frequently occurring value in a set of data

Question 5

Strengths and Weaknesses of Mean

Answer 5

• Most sensitive measure of central tendency
• easily distorted by extreme values, misrepresentative of data

Question 6

Strengths and Weaknesses of Median

Answer 6

• Not affected by extreme scores
• Not as sensitive as the mean because exact values are not reflected

Question 7

Strengths and Weaknesses of Mode

Answer 7

• Unaffected by extreme values, more effective for discrete data
• Crude measure and may not be useful

Question 8

What is a measure of dispersion

Answer 8

• Shows the spread of results in a set of data
• Explains how far the scores differ and vary from each other

Question 9

Range

Answer 9

Measures spread of results by identifying the highest and lowest score

Question 10

Standard Deviation

Answer 10

A single score which tells us how far the score deviates (moves away) from the mean

Question 11

Strengths and Weaknesses of Range

Answer 11

• Easy to calculate
• May be distorted by outliers
• May not be representative of the whole data

Question 12

Strengths and Weaknesses of Standard Deviation

Answer 12

• Takes into account all of the data
• Gives us useful information
• Standard Deviation may be distorted if the mean has been skewed by outliers