Research Methods- Descriptive Statistics Flashcards
What is the purpose of descriptive statistics?
Describe patterns found in a set of data
What does central tendency describe?
An average
What do measures of dispersion describe?
How spread out the data is
How do you calculate the mean?
Add all scores in a data set and then divide by number of scores
What are 2 advantages of using the mean?
- Uses all scores in data set
- Used in further calculations so handy to work out
What are 2 disadvantages of using the mean?
- Can be skewed
- Can sometimes give an unrealistically precise value
What is the mode?
The score that occurs most often
What are 2 advantages of using the mode?
- Shows most common score
- Always a result from the actual data set so can be a more useful or realistic statistic
What are 2 disadvantages of using the mode?
- Not very useful if there are several modal values
- Little further use in data analysis
What is the median?
The middle score when the data is put in order
What are 2 advantages of using the median?
- Quick and easy to calculate
- Not affected by extremely high or extremely low values
What are 2 disadvantages of using the median?
- Not all scores are used
- Little further use in data analysis
What is the range?
Highest score minus the lowest score
What is an advantage of using the range?
Quick and easy to calculate
What is the disadvantage of using the range?
Ignores central values so can be misleading if there are very high or very low scores
