Eleisha Rosete

BSHRM4A

Measures of Central Tendency

A measure of central tendency is a single value that attempts to describe a set of data by identifying the central
position within that set of data. As such, measures of central tendency are sometimes called measures of central
location. They are also classed as summary statistics. The mean (often called the average) is most likely the
measure of central tendency that you are most familiar with, but there are others, such as the median and the mode.

Measures of Central Tendency provides a summary measure that attempts to describe a whole set of data with a
single value that represents the middle or center of its distribution. There are three main measures of central
tendency: the mean, the median and the mode. When data is normally distributed, the mean, median and mode
should be identical, and are all effective in showing the most typical value of a data set.

Mean

The mean of a data set is also known as the average value. It is calculated by dividing the sum of all values in a data
set by the number of values.

So in a data set of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, we would calculate the mean by adding the values (1+2+3+4+5) and dividing by the
total number of values (5). Our mean then is 15/5, which equals 3.

Disadvantages to the mean as a measure of central tendency are that it is highly susceptible to outliers (observations
which are markedly distant from the bulk of observations in a data set), and that it is not appropriate to use when the
data is skewed, rather than being of a normal distribution.

Median

The median of a data set is the value that is at the middle of a data set arranged from smallest to largest.

In the data set 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, the median is 3.

In a data set with an even number of observations, the median is calculated by dividing the sum of the two middle
values by two. So in: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, the median is (3+4)/2, which equals 3.5.

The median is appropriate to use with ordinal variables, and with interval variables with a skewed distribution.

Mode

The mode is the most common observation of a data set, or the value in the data set that occurs most frequently. The
mode has several disadvantages. It is possible for two modes to appear in the one data set (e.g. in: 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5,
both 2 and 5 are the modes).

Difference between Mean, Mode, Median

 The Mean – To arrive at the mean of a set of numbers, you add the numbers up and then divide
the sum by the number of numbers you were dealing with. (This is just like calculating what is
called the “average.”) If your number set is 12, 8, 7, 15, and 7, for example, you would first add
all those numbers together (equaling 49) and divide that sum by the number of numbers in your
set (5). The result is 9.8. That’s your mean!
  The Median – This is the “middle” number in the set of numbers that you are dealing with. Think
of it this way. Half of the numbers in the set are bigger than the median; half of the numbers are
smaller. So to arrive at the median, simply put all the numbers in ascending order, with the
smallest first. The number that is smack dab in the middle is the median. Aha you say, what if you
have an even number of numbers in your set, not an odd number, so two numbers are in the
middle? Well, the solution to that problem is easy; if that is the case, the median is midway
between the two numbers that are in the middle of the set. So if your two middle two numbers are
7 and 9, your median is 8 (halfway in between).

 The Mode – The mode is the number in a set that appears most frequently. If you are dealing
with those numbers we cited at the outset - 12, 8, 7, 15, and 7 – the mode is 7, because 7
appears twice, more than any other number. What if you have a set of numbers in which every
number appears just once? Simple! You then have a set of numbers that doesn’t have a mode.

Computing the Mean of Ungrouped Data

The mean is defined as the average value of the data. It is the value that is representative of all
the values in a data set. It is calculated arithmetically similar to the calculation of average. Thus, the
mean is also known as arithmetic mean or average. The statistical mean of the ungrouped data can be
found by finding by sum of the given values and dividing it by total number of values. The mean is a type
of measures of central tendency.

The formula for the calculation of the mean of ungrouped data is given below:

This can also be written as:

Computing the Median of Ungrouped Data

Median is defined as the mid value of the data set. It is a value that falls in the middle-most position of the
whole data. Median of an ungrouped data is determined by arranging the given numbers in ascending
order and then selecting exactly middle value. In other words, the median is the value that divides the
observations (in ascending order) into two equal divisions.

The formulas for calculating the median of an ungrouped data which has total "n" number of
observations arranged in increasing order, are:

Case I: When ‘n’ is odd Case II: When ‘n’ is Even

Computing the Mode of Ungrouped Data

The mode is defined the value that most frequently occurs in the given data; i.e. the number whose
frequency is more than others, is called the mode. It is usually denoted by "Z".

In order to find the mode of an ungrouped data, we have to find the frequency of each number in the
given data set. Then, we have to choose the number having the highest frequency as the mode. The
mode is also one of the three measures of central tendency. We can write as:

Mode = Value with highest frequency

Examples

The examples based on the calculations of ungrouped data are given below:

Example 1: Find the mean, median and mode for the following ungrouped data:
6, 5, 5, 7, 4, 8 3, 4, 4

Solution: 4, 6, 5, 5, 7, 4, 8, 3, 4, 4

Calculation of Mean:

Ascending order:

3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8

Number of observations = 10
 Calculation of Median:

Ascending order:
3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8
Since n is even, hence

Calculation of Mode

Mode = Highest frequency term = 4

Example 2: Calculate the variance and standard deviation of the data 1, 2, 3

Solution: 1, 2, 3