Measures of Central Tendency

Question 1

What are the 3 measures of central tendency?

Answer 1

1. Mean
2. Median
3. Mode

Question 2

How do you calculate the mean?

Answer 2

Add all the numbers together and divide by how many numbers there are

Question 3

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the mean?

Answer 3

Advantage: Uses all scores so is the most powerful and sensitive measure of central tendency

Disadvantage: It can be distorted by extreme scores and there’s rarely an actual score in the set of data

Question 4

How do you calculate the median?

Answer 4

Put the data into ascending order and then find the number in the middle (if there are 2 middle numbers add them together and divide them by 2)

Question 5

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the median?

Answer 5

Advantage: It is unaffected by extreme values and is easier to calculate than the mean

Disadvantage: It only takes into account 1 or 2 scores

Question 6

How do you calculate the mode?

Answer 6

The score that occurs the most often

Question 7

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the mode?

Answer 7

Advantage: Unaffected by extreme values and is quick and easy to calculate

Disadvantage: It’s not useful in small sets of data and doesn’t take into account other scores

Question 8

How do you calculate the range?

Answer 8

Subtract the lowest number from the highest number

Question 9

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the range?

Answer 9

Advantage: Easy and quick to work out and takes full account of extreme scores

Disadvantage: It can be distorted by extreme scores

Question 10

What does standard variation do?

Answer 10

• Looks at variance (the average of the squared differences from the mean)
• Used to help decide whether the difference between 2 means is likely to be significant

Question 11

What are the advantages and disadvantages of standard deviation?

Answer 11

Advantage: takes into account all scores

Disadvantage: Less meaningful if the data isn’t normally distributed