MEASURE OF CENTRAL TENDENCY FOR GROUP DATA

Central Tendency are values that summarize/

represent the majority of scores in a distribution

Three main measures of central tendency:

Mean (= Sample Mean; = Population Mean)
Median
Mode

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
F
r
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q
u
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n
c
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
DV
MEASURE OF CENTRAL TENDENCY FOR GROUP DATA
Mode = most frequently occurring data point

MEASURE OF CENTRAL TENDENCY FOR GROUP DATA
Mode = (3+4)/2 = 3.5

MEASURE OF CENTRAL TENDENCY FOR GROUP DATA
Median = the middle number when data are arranged in
numerical order
Data: 3 5 1
Step 1: Arrange in numerical order
1 3 5
Step 2: Pick the middle number (3)

Data: 3 5 7 11 14 15
Median = (7+11)/2 = 9

MEASURE OF CENTRAL TENDENCY FOR GROUP DATA
Median
Median Location = (N +1)/2 = (56 + 1)/2 = 28.5
Median = (3+4)/2 = 3.5

MEASURE OF CENTRAL TENDENCY FOR GROUP DATA
Mean = Average = X/N
X = 191 Mean = 191/56 = 3.41

MEASURE OF CENTRAL TENDENCY FOR GROUP DATA
Characteristics of the Mean
Adding or subtracting a constant from each score
also adds or subtracts the same number from the
mean
i.e. adding 10 to all scores in a sample will increase the
mean of these scores by 10
X = 751 Mean = 751/56 = 13.41

MEASURE OF CENTRAL TENDENCY FOR GROUP DATA
Characteristics of the Mean
Multiplying or dividing a constant from each score
has similar effects upon the mean
i.e. multiplying each score in a sample by 10 will increase the mean by
10x
X = 1910 Mean = 1910/56 = 34.1

MEASURE OF CENTRAL TENDENCY FOR GROUP DATA
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Measures:
Mode
1. Typically a number that actually occurs in
dataset
2. Has highest probability of occurrence
3. Applicable to Nominal, as well as Ordinal,
Interval and Ratio Scales
4. Unaffected by extreme scores
5. But not representative if multimodal with peaks
far apart (see next slide)

MEASURE OF CENTRAL TENDENCY FOR GROUP DATA
Mode
MEASURE OF CENTRAL TENDENCY FOR GROUP DATA
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Measures:
Median
1. Also unaffected by extreme scores
Data: 5 8 11 Median = 8
Data: 5 8 5 million Median = 8
2. Usually its value actually occurs in the data
3. But cannot be entered into equations, because
there is no equation that defines it
4. And not as stable from sample to sample,
because dependent upon the number of scores
in the sample



MEASURE OF CENTRAL TENDENCY FOR GROUP DATA
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Measures:
Mean
1. Defined algebraically
2. Stable from sample to sample
3. But usually does not actually occur in the data
4. And heavily influenced by outliers
Data: 5 8 11 Mean = 8
Data: 5 8 5 million Mean = 1,666,671