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Chapter 5

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89 views

Chapter 5

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api-268563289
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chapter 5 1

Chapter 5:
Measures of Variability
The Importance of Measuring
Variability
The Range
IQR (Inter-Quartile Range)
Variance
Standard Deviation
Considerations for choosing a measure
of variation

Chapter 5 2
The Importance of
Measuring Variability
Central tendency - Numbers that describe
what is typical or average (central) in a
distribution
Measures of Variability - Numbers that
describe diversity or variability in the
distribution.
These two types of measures together help us to sum up a
distribution of scores without looking at each and every
score. Measures of central tendency tell you about typical (or
central) scores. Measures of variation reveal how far from
the typical or central score that the distribution tends to vary.
Chapter 5 3
Notice that both distributions have the same mean, yet
they are shaped differently
Chapter 5 4
The Range
Range = highest score - lowest score

Range A measure of variation in interval-ratio
variables. It is the difference between the
highest (maximum) and the lowest (minimum)
scores in the distribution.

Chapter 5 5
Inter-Quartile Range
Inter-Quartile Range (IQR) A measure of
variation for interval-ratio data. It indicates the
width of the middle 50 percent of the distribution
and is defined as the difference between the lower
and upper quartiles (Q1 and Q3.)
IQR = Q3 Q1
Chapter 5 6
The difference between the
Range and IQR
Shows
greater
variability
These
values
fall
together
closely
Yet the ranges
are equal!
Importance
of the IQR
Chapter 5 7
The Box Plot
The Box Plot is a graphic device that visually
presents the following elements: the range, the IQR,
the median, the quartiles, the minimum (lowest
value,) and the maximum (highest value.)
Maximum
Q3
Q1
Median
Minimum
Range IQR
Chapter 5 8
Variance
Variance A measure of variation for
interval-ratio variables; it is the average of
the squared deviations from the mean
1
) (
2
2


N
s
Y Y
Y
Chapter 5 9
Standard Deviation
Standard Deviation A measure of variation for
interval-ratio variables; it is equal to the square
root of the variance.
1
) (
2
2




N
s s
Y Y
Y
Chapter 5 10
Find the Mean and the
Standard Deviation
Chapter 5 11
Considerations for Choosing a
Measure of Variability
For nominal variables, you can only use IQV (Index
of Qualitative Variation.)
For ordinal variables, you can calculate the IQV or
the IQR (Inter-Quartile Range.) Though, the IQR
provides more information about the variable.
For interval-ratio variables, you can use IQV, IQR,
or variance/standard deviation. The standard
deviation (also variance) provides the most
information, since it uses all of the values in the
distribution in its calculation.

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