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    Lesson 5:: Measures of Central Tendency

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    Dmzjmb Saad
    This document discusses measures of central tendency including the mean, median, and mode. The mean is the average value and is calculated by summing all values and dividing by the total number of values. However, it can be influenced by outliers. The median is the middle value when all values are arranged from lowest to highest. It is less influenced by outliers and skewed data compared to the mean. The mode is the most frequently occurring value. However, there can be multiple modes or it may not represent central tendency well for skewed data distributions.

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    Lesson 5:: Measures of Central Tendency

    Uploaded by

    Dmzjmb Saad
    45 views4 pages
    This document discusses measures of central tendency including the mean, median, and mode. The mean is the average value and is calculated by summing all values and dividing by the total number of values. However, it can be influenced by outliers. The median is the middle value when all values are arranged from lowest to highest. It is less influenced by outliers and skewed data compared to the mean. The mode is the most frequently occurring value. However, there can be multiple modes or it may not represent central tendency well for skewed data distributions.

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    This document discusses measures of central tendency including the mean, median, and mode. The mean is the average value and is calculated by summing all values and dividing by the total number of values. However, it can be influenced by outliers. The median is the middle value when all values are arranged from lowest to highest. It is less influenced by outliers and skewed data compared to the mean. The mode is the most frequently occurring value. However, there can be multiple modes or it may not represent central tendency well for skewed data distributions.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    45 views4 pages

    Lesson 5:: Measures of Central Tendency

    Uploaded by

    Dmzjmb Saad
    This document discusses measures of central tendency including the mean, median, and mode. The mean is the average value and is calculated by summing all values and dividing by the total number of values. However, it can be influenced by outliers. The median is the middle value when all values are arranged from lowest to highest. It is less influenced by outliers and skewed data compared to the mean. The mode is the most frequently occurring value. However, there can be multiple modes or it may not represent central tendency well for skewed data distributions.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 4

    LESSON 5: Measures of Central Tendency

    A measure of central tendency is a single value that attempts to describe a set of data by identifying the central position
    within that set of data. As such, measures of central tendency are sometimes called Measures of Central Location.

    Mean (Arithmetic)
    The mean (or average) is the most popular and well-known measure of central tendency. It can be used with both
    discrete and continuous data, although its use is most often with continuous data.

    Formula:

    Sample Mean x̅ = Σx / N

    Population Mean μ = Σx / N

    When not to use the Mean


    The mean has one main disadvantage: it is particularly susceptible to the influence of outliers. These are values that are
    unusual compared to the rest of the data set by being especially small or large in numerical value. For example, consider
    the wages of staff at a factory below:
    Staff 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
    Salary 15k 18k 16k 14k 15k 15k 12k 17k 90k 95k

    Another time when we usually prefer the median over the mean (or mode) is when our data is skewed.

    Median
    The median is the middle score for a set of data that has been arranged in order of magnitude. The median is less
    affected by outliers and skewed data. In order to calculate the median, suppose we have the data below:

    65 55 89 56 35 14 56 55 87 45 92

    We first need to rearrange that data into order of magnitude (smallest first):

    14 35 45 55 55 56 56 65 87 89 92

    We again rearrange that data into order of magnitude (smallest first):


    14 35 45 55 55 56 56 65 87 89

    Only now we have to take the 5th and 6th score in our data set and average them to get a median of 55.5.
    Mode
    The mode is the most frequent score in our data set. On a histogram it represents the highest bar in a bar chart or
    histogram. You can, therefore, sometimes consider the mode as being the most popular option.

    Problems with Mode

    One of the problems with the mode is that it is not unique, so it leaves us with problems when we have two or more
    values that share the highest frequency, such as below:
    Another problem with the mode is that it will not provide us with a very good measure of central tendency when the
    most common mark is far away from the rest of the data in the data set, as depicted in the diagram below:

    Skewed Distributions and the Mean and Median


    Skewness is asymmetry in a statistical distribution, in which the curve appears distorted or skewed either to the left or
    to the right. Skewness can be quantified to define the extent to which a distribution differs from a normal distribution.

    • In a perfect normal distribution (green solid curve), the tails on either side of the curve are exact mirror images
    of each other.

    • When a distribution is skewed to the left (red dashed curve), the tail on the curve's left-hand side is longer than
    the tail on the right-hand side, and the mean is less than the mode. This situation is also called negative
    skewness.
    • When a distribution is skewed to the right (blue dotted curve), the tail on the curve's right-hand side is longer
    than the tail on the left-hand side, and the mean is greater than the mode. This situation is also called positive
    skewness.

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