MEASURES OF

DISPERSION
 MEASURES OF DISPERSION
These are descriptive statistics that describe how similar a
set of scores are to each other.

A measure of variability of a set of data that conveys the idea

of spread for the data set.
• The more similar the scores are to each other,
the lower the measure of dispersion will be.
• The less similar the scores are to each other,
the higher the measure of dispersion will be.
• In general, the more spread out a distribution
is, the larger the measure of dispersion will be.
 MAIN MEASURES OF DISPERSION

• The Range
• The Semi-interquartile Range (SIR)
• Variance
• Standard Deviation
 RANGE
It is defined as the difference between the
largest score in the set of data and the
smallest score in the set of data.
 FIND THE RANGE
4 8 1 6 6 2 9 3 6 9

8
 FIND THE RANGE
120 90 80 60 120

60
 FIND THE RANGE
20 28 10 16 30 32 31 16 18 20

22
 When to use the RANGE?
The range is used when you have ordinal data
or you are presenting your results to people.
SEMI-INTERQUARTILE RANGE
Also called quartile deviation, is a measure
that indicates dispersion within the middle
50% of the distribution.
SEMI-INTERQUARTILE RANGE

Q3  Q1
Q
2
Find the Semi-interquartile
Range.
4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 15

6.75 12.5
1st Quartile 3rd Quartile
SEMI-INTERQUARTILE RANGE
Q3  Q1
Q
2
12.5  6.75 5.75
Q Q Q  2.875
2 2
Find the Semi-interquartile
Range.

8 10 16 20 40 45 47 50 54
13 48.5
1st Quartile 3rd Quartile
SEMI-INTERQUARTILE RANGE
Q3  Q1
Q
2
48.5  13 35.5
Q Q Q  17.75
2 2
 When to use the SEMI-
INTERQUARTILE RANGE?
The SIR is often used with skewed data as it is
insensitive to the extreme scores.
 STANDARD DEVIATION
It is a measure of variability which takes into
account the difference of every score in a
distribution from the mean of the distribution.
 STANDARD DEVIATION

 ( x  x)  ( x  x)
2 2

 i
s i

n n 1
POPULATION SAMPLE
What is the standard deviation
for the data set obtained by
sampling a population?
{100, 158, 170, 192}
 {100, 158, 170, 192}
FIND THE MEAN

100  158  170  192

x  155
4
 {100, 158, 170, 192}
Subtract the mean from each value and square each difference.

( xi  x) 2  (100  155) 2  (158  155) 2  (170  155) 2  (192  155) 2

( xi  x) 2  (55) 2  (3) 2  (15) 2  (37) 2
( xi  x)  3025  9  225  1369
2

( xi  x)  4628
2
 x xx ( x  x) 2

100 - 55 3025

158 3 9

170 15 225

192 37 1365

 ( x  x) 2
 4628
  ( x  x)
2

s i

n 1

(100  155)  (158  155)  (170  155)  (192  155)

2 2 2 2
s
4 1

4628
s
3

s  1542.67
s  39.28
 VARIANCE
The average of the squares of the deviation
of the measurement.
 VARIANCE

 
2 2
( x  x) ( x  x)
 2
 i
s 2
 i

n n 1
POPULATION SAMPLE
 What is the variance for the
data set obtained by sampling
a population?
{100, 158, 170, 192}
 
2
( x  x)
s 2
 i

n 1

(100  155)  (158  155)  (170  155)  (192  155)

2 2 2 2
s 
2

4 1

4628
s  2

3
s  1542.67
2
 RELATIONSHIP AMONG
MEASURES OF DISPERSION
AND CENTRAL TENDENCY
MEASURE OF CENTRAL
MEASURE OF DISPERSION
TENDENCY
STANDARD DEVIATION
MEAN
AND VARIANCE
MEDIAN QUARTILE DEVIATION
Calculate the variance and standard deviation from the
given sample below.

Time (in minutes) it takes waiting for a bus.

15 28 25 19 20 23
 x xx ( x  x) 2
15 -6.67 44.4889

28 6.33 40.0689
x  21.67 25 3.33 11.0889

19 -2.67 7.1289

20 -1.67 2.7889

23 1.33 1.7689

 ( x  x ) 2
 107.33
  ( x  x)
2

s i

n 1

107.33 107.33
s s
6 1 5

s  21.47
s  4.63
The variance for the sample is 21.47 while the
standard deviation is 4.63.