Week 2 Lesson 3

Background Week 2 Lesson 3 will discuss the appropriate use of measures of central tendency and variability in describing ungrouped set of data. Topics this Week Organization of Data easures of !entral "endency easures of #ariability Key Concepts Organization of Data easures of !entral "endency and #ariability "he ean "he edian "he ode $kewed Distributions and easures of !entral "endency Textbook eading Activities %ead pages &&'(2 of your te)tbook. Activity 1 With the assigned topic*s to your group+ find at least one very good internet site or ,rl that you think is useful to that topic*s. Discuss in no more than 2 sentences why it is useful- what important lessons will you get from the ,rl site. Activity 2 .dentify at least one lesson you have learned in this week/s discussion and in brief discuss its importance with your groupmates. Activity 3 "ry working on this e)ample and interprete the results. $ubmit your assignment via the assignment panel. 0iwi 1ird 2roblem 3s is commonly known+ 0.W.'birds are native to 4ew 5ealand. "hey are born e)actly one foot tall and grow in one foot intervals. "hat is+ one moment they are one foot tall and the ne)t they are two feet tall. "hey are also very rare. 3n investigator goes to 4ew 5ealand and finds four birds. "he mean of the four birds is &+ the median is 3+ and the mode is 2. What are the heights of the four birds6 7int ' e)amine the constraints of the mode first+ the median second+ and the mean last.

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Week 2 Lesson 3
!ourna" Activity

$ubmit your initial thoughts regarding your research 8ournal paper in relation to the topics we have discussed so far.

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Week 2 Lesson 3
Organization of Data Data can be further classified as ungrouped or grouped. ,ngrouped set of data means raw or not arranged in any order+ while grouped is data organized and presented in table form. Whether grouped or ungrouped+ data can be organized with the help of measure of central tendency+ measure of dispersion+ and :uantiles. ;or this lesson+ we will be discussing measure of central tendency and measure of variability. 1ut note that there are actually four types of measures < the measure of central tendency+ measure of dispersion+ validity and reliability. "he later two are not covered in this course. Measures of Central Tendency and Variability easures of !entral "endency is also called as easure of !entral or !entral Location or 3verages. 7ere+ we tend to locate the center of the distribution when the points tend to converge at the center. On the other hand+ easure of #ariability is also known as easure of Dispersion or $pread. 7ere+ we tend to measure how variable the points are from each other or from the center as the points tend to go away from the center of the distribution. ,nder the measure of !entral tendency we have the mean+ the median and the mode+ while we the range+ the :uartile deviation+ inter:uartile deviation+ standard deviation+ and mean absolute deviation for the easure of #ariability. "he diagram below illustrates the measure of central tendency as against the measure of variability. .n most cases when the term ?average? is used+ it refers to the mean+ although not necessarily.
easure of !entral "endency easure of #ariability

The Mean "he mean+ symbolized by x =) with a bar on top> is the sum of the scores divided by the number of scores. "he following formula both defines and describes the procedure for finding the mean<

x=

x
i =9

n
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Week 2 Lesson 3
where ) is the sum of the scores and n is the number of scores. @)ample< "he following data shows the number of in8ections re:uired in ;irst 2& 2ostoperative hours in ( patients< 3+ A+ B+ C+ &. "he mean is (.C in8ections. "he use of means as a way of describing a set of scores is fairly common- average income+ average weekly allowance+ grade point average+ and average points scored per game are all means. 4ote however+ the use of the word ?average? in all of the above phrases. 3verage can be used generally and may be regarded as either mean+ median or mode. @ach of them has it/s own use. "he table below shows when to use the mean+ the median and the mode. "he mean is sensitive to e)treme scores. .n most cases the mean is the preferred measure of central tendency+ both as a description of the data and as an estimate of the parameter. .n order for the mean to be meaningful+ however+ the acceptance of the interval property of measurement is necessary. When this property is obviously violated+ it is inappropriate and misleading to compute a mean. $uch is the case+ for e)ample+ when the data are clearly nominal categorical. 3n e)ample would be political party preference where 9 D !linical "est+ 2 D Doppler "est+ and 3 D #enography "est. "he special case of dichotomous nominal categorical variables allows meaningful interpretation of means. ;or e)ample+ if only two levels of medical test preference is allowed+ 9 D !linical "est and 2 D Doppler+ then the mean of this variable could be interpreted. .n such cases it is preferred to code one level of the variable with a EFG and the other level with a E9/ such that the mean is the proportion of the second level in the sample. ;or e)ample+ if gender was coded with F D ales and 9 D ;emales+ then the mean of this variable would be the proportion of females in the sample. The Median x or d+ is the score value which divides the "he median+ symbolized by H distribution in half+ such that half the scores fall above the median and the other half fall below it. "o compute for median+ the first step is to rank order the scores from lowest to highest or put it in a chronological order. 7owever+ treatments will be different if the number of scores in the sample distribution is odd or even. .f there is an odd number of scores as in the distribution 3+ &+ C+ A+ B+ then the median is simply the middle number. .n this e)ample+ the median would be the number C+ because there are ( scores all together with 2 scores smaller and 2 larger. .f there is an even number of scores+ as in the distribution 3+ &+ C+ A+ B+ I+ then the median is the midpoint between the two middle scores. .n this e)ample the value of

When the use o# $ean is vio"ated and %hen not&

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Week 2 Lesson 3
the median is C.(. .t was found by adding the two middle scores together and dividing by two =C J A>*2 D C.(. .f the two middle scores are the same value then the median is that value. .n the above system+ no account is paid to whether there is a duplication of scores around the median. .n some systems a slight correction is performed to correct for grouped data+ but since the correction is slight and the data is generally not grouped for computation in calculators or computers+ it is not presented here. "his is presented in the lessons found under the folder ,tilizing calculators and computers. "he median+ like the mean and the mode+ is not effected by e)treme scores. The Mode K or o+ is the most fre:uently occurring score value. .n "he mode+ symbolized by x the distribution 3+ A+ B+ C+ &+ there is no mode. 1ut if another value is added+ say A+ then the mode becomes A as it appears twice+ more than any other score. "he mode may be seen on a fre:uency distribution as the score value which corresponds to the highest point. 3 distribution may have more than one mode if the two most fre:uently occurring scores occur the same number of times. ;or e)ample+ if the earlier score distribution were modified as follows< 3+ A+ B+ C+ &+ A+ B+ then there would be two modes+ A and B. $uch distributions are called bimodal. "he mode is not sensitive to e)treme scores. information about the distribution. ode however+ does not give much

Skewed Distributions and Measures of Central Tendency $kewness refers to the asymmetry of the distribution+ such that a symmetrical distribution e)hibits no skewness. .n a symmetrical distribution the mean+ median+ and mode all fall at the same point+ as in a normal distribution shown in figures above. 3n e)ception to this is the case of a bi'modal symmetrical distribution. .n this case the mean and the median fall at the same point+ while the two modes correspond to the two highest points of the distribution. 3 positively skewed distribution is asymmetrical and points in the positive direction. .f a test was very difficult and almost everyone in the class did very poorly on it+ the resulting distribution would most likely be positively skewed. .n the case of a positively skewed distribution+ the mode is smaller than the median+ which is smaller than the mean. "his relationship e)ists because the mode is the point on the )'a)is corresponding to the highest point+ that is+ the score with greatest value+ or fre:uency. "he median is the point on the )'a)is that cuts the distribution in half+ such that (FL of the area falls on each side.

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Week 2 Lesson 3
"he mean is the balance point of the distribution. 1ecause points further away from the balance point change the center of balance+ the mean is pulled in the direction the distribution is skewed. ;or e)ample+ if the distribution is positively skewed+ the mean would be pulled in the direction of the skewness+ or be pulled toward larger numbers. One way to remember the order of the mean+ median+ and mode in a skewed distribution is to remember that the mean is pulled in the direction of the e)treme scores. .n a positively skewed distribution+ the e)treme scores are larger+ thus the mean is larger than the median. 3 negatively skewed distribution is asymmetrical and points in the negative direction+ such as would result with a very easy test. On an easy test+ almost all students would perform well and only a few would do poorly. "he order of the measures of central tendency would be the opposite of the positively skewed distribution+ with the mean being smaller than the median+ which is smaller than the mode.

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