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Stats Chapter 4 Variability

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27 views

Stats Chapter 4 Variability

Uploaded by

Madison Hartfield
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter 4: Variability

Variability

• The goal for variability is to obtain a measure of


how spread out the scores are in a distribution.
• A measure of variability usually accompanies a
measure of central tendency as basic
descriptive statistics for a set of scores.
Central Tendency and Variability
• Central tendency describes the central point of
the distribution, and variability describes how the
scores are scattered around that central point.
• Together, central tendency and variability are
the two primary values that are used to describe
a distribution of scores.
Variability
• Variability serves both as a descriptive measure
and as an important component of most
inferential statistics.
• As a descriptive statistic, variability measures
the degree to which the scores are spread out or
clustered together in a distribution.
• In the context of inferential statistics, variability
provides a measure of how accurately any
individual score or sample represents the entire
population.
Variability (cont'd.)
• When the population variability is small, all of the
scores are clustered close together and any
individual score or sample will necessarily
provide a good representation of the entire set.
• On the other hand, when variability is large and
scores are widely spread, it is easy for one or
two extreme scores to give a distorted picture of
the general population.
Measuring Variability

• Variability can be measured with


– The range
– The standard deviation/variance
• In both cases, variability is determined by
measuring distance.
The Range

• The range is the total distance covered by the


distribution, from the highest score to the lowest
score (using the upper and lower real limits of
the range).
The Range (cont'd.)

• Alternative definitions of range:


– When scores are whole numbers or discrete
variables with numerical scores, the range tells
us the number of measurement categories.
– Alternatively, the range can be defined as the
difference between the largest score and the
smallest score.
The Standard Deviation

• Standard deviation measures the standard


(average) distance between a score and the
mean.
• The calculation of standard deviation can be
summarized as a four-step process:
The Standard Deviation (cont'd.)
1. Compute the deviation (distance from the mean) for each
score.
2. Square each deviation.
3. Compute the mean of the squared deviations. For a
population, this involves summing the squared deviations
(sum of squares, SS) and then dividing by N. The resulting
value is called the variance or mean square and measures
the average squared distance from the mean.
For samples, variance is computed by dividing the sum
of the squared deviations (SS) by n - 1, rather than N.
The value, n - 1, is know as degrees of freedom (df)
and is used so that the sample variance will provide an
unbiased estimate of the population variance.
4. Finally, take the square root of the variance to obtain the
standard deviation.
Properties of the
Standard Deviation
• If a constant is added to every score in a
distribution, the standard deviation will not be
changed.
• If you visualize the scores in a frequency
distribution histogram, then adding a constant
will move each score so that the entire
distribution is shifted to a new location.
• The center of the distribution (the mean)
changes, but the standard deviation remains the
same.
Properties of the
Standard Deviation (cont'd.)
• If each score is multiplied by a constant, the
standard deviation will be multiplied by the same
constant.
• Multiplying by a constant will multiply the
distance between scores, and because the
standard deviation is a measure of distance, it
will also be multiplied.
The Mean and Standard Deviation
as Descriptive Statistics
• If you are given numerical values for the mean
and the standard deviation, you should be able
to construct a visual image (or a sketch) of the
distribution of scores.
• As a general rule, about 70% of the scores will
be within one standard deviation of the mean,
and about 95% of the scores will be within a
distance of two standard deviations of the mean.

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