measures of central tendency

Question 1

mode

Answer 1

the most commonly occurring scores

Question 2

median

Answer 2

the score corresponding to the point having 50% of the observations below it when observation are arranged in numerical order
*must be in order

Question 3

mean

Answer 3

the sum of the scores divided by the number of the scores

Question 4

advantages and disadvantages of the mode

Answer 4

good descriptive measure
poor inferential measure
ADV - the score actually occurred, not affected by extreme scores, represents largest number of people
DIS - not necessarily representative of the data

Question 5

advantages and disadvantages of the median

Answer 5

used when have a fairly small distribution and few
ADV - not disproportionally affected by extreme scores
DIS - not stables from sample to sample, its value may not exist in data

Question 6

advantages and disadvantages of the mean

Answer 6

most useful, most common measure of central tendency
most stable
used for population estimate
ADV - estimate population mean. More stable and less variable. Better estimator of population
DIS - sometimes influenced by scores, it’s value may not exist in data

Question 7

relationship with measures of central tendency in unimodal

Answer 7

they will all roughly be the same

Question 8

positively skewed distribution

Answer 8

trails off to the right
mode < median < mean
mean off to the right of the three measures because it is affected the most by extreme scores

Question 9

negatively skewed distribution

Answer 9

mode > median > mean
trails off to the left

Question 10

bimodel distribution

Answer 10

can only have one median, could have more than one mode