measures of dispersion

Question 1

what are measures of dispersion

Answer 1

ways of showing how dispersed or spread out the numbers are in a set of data

Question 2

what is the easiest measure of dispersion to use

Answer 2

the range

Question 3

what are the pros of using the range

Answer 3

-provides the researcher with direct information
-easy to calculate

Question 4

what are the cons of using the range

Answer 4

-affected by extreme scores
-doesn’t consider the number of observations in a number set

Question 5

which is more precise, standard deviation or the range

Answer 5

standard deviation

Question 6

what is standard deviation

Answer 6

the spread of data around the mean

Question 7

what are the pros of using standard deviation

Answer 7

it is a more precise measure of dispersion because all values are considered

Question 8

what are the cons of using standard deviation

Answer 8

-difficult to calculate by hand
-my hide some of the characteristics of the data set (e.g. extreme values)