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Lect 03 Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion

The document covers measures of central tendency and dispersion, defining and explaining mean, mode, median, range, variance, and standard deviation. It provides methods for calculating these statistics and emphasizes the importance of understanding their implications, particularly in the presence of outliers. Examples are included to illustrate the calculations and interpretations of these statistical measures.

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33 views12 pages

Lect 03 Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion

The document covers measures of central tendency and dispersion, defining and explaining mean, mode, median, range, variance, and standard deviation. It provides methods for calculating these statistics and emphasizes the importance of understanding their implications, particularly in the presence of outliers. Examples are included to illustrate the calculations and interpretations of these statistical measures.

Uploaded by

zuleykhasaidi
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY

AND DISPERSION
Learning Tasks
At the end of this session the learner is expected to be able to:
• Define mean, mode, median, standards deviation, variance and range
• Explain measures of central tendencies
• Explain measures of dispersion/variability
• Calculate mean, mode, median, range, variance and standard deviation
• Interpret mean, mode, median, range, variance and standard deviation
Measures of Central Tendency/location

• A measure of central location provides a single value that summarizes


an entire distribution of data. There three measures of central tendency
namely:
• Mean
• Mode
• Median
• Mean: is the sum of observed values divided by number of
observations
• It is the most common measure of centrality and is most informative when data
follow normal distribution (bell-shaped curve)
• Means can be badly affected by outliers (data points with extreme values unlike
the rest).
• Outliers can make the mean a bad measure of central tendency or common
experience
• Example of mean calculation:
• Data Set = 2, 5, 9, 3, 5, 4, 7
• Number of Elements in Data Set = 7
• Mean = (2 + 5 + 9 + 7 + 5 + 4 + 3 ) / 7 = 5
• Median is the middle value when a variable’s values are ranked in
order.
• It is the point that divides a distribution into two equal halves.
• It is the “middle” value: half of all observed values are smaller, half are larger.
• It is unaffected by outliers, it the best centrality measure when data are skewed
• The calculation of the median will depend on whether the number of data are in
forms of odd or even. First reorder the data set from the smallest to the largest
then if the numbers of elements are odd, then the Median is the element in the
middle of the data set. If the numbers of elements are even, then the Median is
the average of the two middle terms.
• Median examples:
• Odd Number of Elements
• Data Set = 2, 5, 9, 3, 5, 4, 7
• Reordered = 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 7, 9
• Median = 5
• Even Number of Elements
• Data Set = 2, 5, 9, 3, 5, 4
• Reordered = 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 9
• Median = (4 + 5 ) / 2 = 4.5
• Mode: is the most frequently occurring value in a set of
observation
• Examples Mode calculation:
• Single Mode Data Set = 2, 5, 9, 3, 5, 4, 7; Mode = 5
• Examples: Bimodal Data Set = 2, 5, 2, 3, 5, 4, 7 Modes = 2 and 5
• Examples: Trimodal Data Set = 2, 5, 2, 7, 5, 4, 7 Modes = 2, 5,
and 7
Measures of dispersion/variability
• Measure of dispersion include
• Range
• Variance
• Standard deviation
• Range: is the difference between the largest and the smallest
values in a series or distribution. It is affected by extreme
values, and thus may be unrepresentative of the spread of
items.
• Example of Range calculation:
• Data Set = 2, 5, 9, 3, 5, 4, 7
• Range = (9 - 2) = 7
• Variance: is the average of the square of all deviations from the
arithmetic mean.
• It measures how far a set of (random) numbers are spread out from their
average value.
• The standard deviation: is the square root of variance, and is
expressed in the same unit as the mean.
• How to calculate the variance and standard deviation:
• Example: Find the variance and standard deviation of the following
incubation periods for hepatitis A: 27, 31, 15, 30, and 22 days
• Step 1: Calculate the mean value: Mean=(27 + 31 + 15 + 30 +22) / 5 = 125 / 5 =
25.0
• Step 2: Calculation of the individual deviations from the mean: Subtract the mean
from each observation and Square the difference value minus mean difference
squared:
• 27 – 25.0 = +2.0 = 4.0
• 31 – 25.0 = +6.0 =36.0
• 15 – 25.0 = -10.0= 100.0
• 30 – 25.0 = +5.0= 25.0
• 22 – 25.0 = -3.0= 9.0
• Step 3: Sum the squared deviations from the mean: Sum = 4 + 36 + 100 + 25 + 9 =
174
• Step 4: Calculate variance (S): Divide the sum of the squared differences by (n – 1).
Variance = 174 / (5 – 1) = 174 / 4 = 43.52 days squared
• Squire root of variance = Standard Deviation (SD): SD = square root of √43.5 =

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