Measures of Central Tendency

Unit 2
Measures of Central Tendency?
 The typical score lying between the extremes and shared by most
of the people in a group is referred to as a measure of central
tendency.
 It is a numerical descriptive measure which indicates or locates the
center of a distribution or data set.
 In layman’s term, a measure of central tendency is an average.
 It is a single number of value which can be considered typical in a
set of data as a whole.
 Example:
 The achievement scores of students in a class lying between
highest and the lowest.
 The average height of 40 students in a class would be the typical
height of the members of the class as a whole.
 The most common measures of central tendency are:
 Arithmetic Mean or mean
 Median
 Mode
Arithmetic Mean (M, x̄ )
 Simplest but most useful measure of central tendency.
 Its nothing but average.
 Sum of all the values in a series divided by the number of
items.
 It is represented by symbol M or x̄
 Calculation of mean in the case of ungrouped data:
 X1, X2 ,X3 ,X4 ,X5 ,X6 ,X7 ,X8 ,X9 and X10 are the scores obtained by
10 students on an achievement test. The arithmetic mean or
mean score of the group of these ten students can be
calculated as:
M = X1+X2+X3+…….+X10
10
= M = ΣX
N
Practice makes a person perfect

1. Find the mean IQ for the eight students

whose individual IQ scores are:
80, 100, 105, 90, 112, 115, 110, 120

2. Find the mean height of eleven players

in cms, whose individual height in cms is
as follows:
166, 160, 180, 175, 170, 170, 183, 162,
172, 170, 168
Calculation of mean in the case of grouped data
(Data in the form of frequency distribution):
General Method
In a frequency distribution where all the
frequencies are greater than one, the mean is
calculated by the formula:

M = Σf X
N

X – mid point of the class interval

f – respective frequency
N – Total number of all frequencies
Scores f Mid – fX
Point
(X)
65-69 1 67 67
60-64 3 62 186
55-59 4 57 228
50-54 7 52 364
45-49 9 47 423
40-44 11 42 462
35-39 8 37 296
30-34 4 32 128
25-29 2 27 54
20-24 1 22 22
N
M= 50X =2230 = 44.6
= Σf Σf X = 2230
N 50
Practice makes a person perfect

Scores f Mid – Point fX

(X)
70-71 2
68-69 2
66-67 3
64-65 4
62-63 6
60-61 7
58-59 5
56-57 1
54-55 2
52-53 3
50-51 1

N = 36
Practice makes a person perfect

Scores f Mid – Point fX

(X)
120-122 2
117-119 2
114-116 2
111-113 4
108-110 5
105-107 9
102-104 6
99-101 3
96-98 4
93-95 2
90-92 1
N = 40
Median (Md)
If the items of a series are arranged in
ascending or descending order of magnitude,
the measure or value of the central item in
the series is termed as the Median.
Thus median is the core or the value of that
central item which divides the series into two
equal parts.
Example: If we arrange marks of 5 students in
ascending series, then the marks obtained by
the 3rd student from either side in the series if
the median value.
Calculation of Median or Md for ungrouped data.
When N (No. of items in a series) is odd (Not divisible
by 2):
Md = The measure of value of (N+1)/2 –th item.

Example:
Scores obtained by 7 students on an achievement test
are 17,47,15,35,25,39,44.

Steps:
1. Arrange the series in ascending or descending order
15,17,25,35,39,44,47
2. N = 7 that is odd
3. (N+1)/2 –th item = (7+1)/2 = 4th item
4. Therefore, Md of the given scores = 35
 When N (No. of items in a series) is even:

Md = the value of (N/2)th item + value of [(N/2)+1]th item

2
Example:
Scores obtained by 8 students on an achievement test are
17,47,15,35,25,39,50,44.

Steps:
1. Arrange the series in ascending or descending order
15,17,25,35,39,44,47,50
2. N = 8 that is even
3. the value of (N/2)th item i.e., 4th student = 35
4. value of [(N/2)+1]th item i.e., 5th student = 39

5. Md = (35+39)/2 = 37
Practice makes a person perfect

Compute Median for the following data:

1. 8, 3, 10, 5, 2, 11, 14, 12
2. 72, 74, 77, 53, 58, 63, 66, 82, 89. 69, 71
3. 80, 100, 105, 90, 112, 115, 110, 120
Calculation of Median or Md for grouped
data.
L = Exact lower limit of the median class
F = Total of all frequencies before in the median
class
f = Frequency of the median class
i = Class interval
N = Total of all the frequencies

Formula
(N/2) – F
Md = L + f xi
If the data is presented in the form of
frequency distribution, the first step in
calculation of median is to locate the median
class.
Median class is the value where representing
median will fall.
Example
Scores f
65-69 1
60-64 3
55-59 4
50-54 7
45-49 9
40-44 11
35-39 8
30-34 4
25-29 2
20-24 1
N = 50

L = Exact lower limit of the median

class
F = Total of all frequencies before
in the median class
f = Frequency of the median class
i = Class interval
N = Total of all the frequencies
 Notes:
 N = 50 is even
 So the median will fall somewhere between the scores of
25th and 26th items in the given distribution
 If we add frequencies either from above or below we may
see that the class interval designated as 40-44 is to be
labeled as the class were score representing will fall.
 Therefore,
 Md = 39.5 + (50/2) – 15 x 5 = 39.5 + 10 x 5
11 11
= 39.5 + 50 = 39.5 +4.55 = 44.05
11
Practice

Score f Score f Score f

s s s
55-59 5 45-49 2 20-21 2
50-54 3 40-44 5 18-19 1
45-49 8 35-39 6 16-17 0
40-44 18 30-34 0 14-15 0
35-39 15 25-29 8 12-13 2
30-34 10 20-24 3 10-11 0
25-29 7 15-19 2 8-9 0
20-24 2 6-7 2
N=
N= 26 4-5 1
68 2-3 1
0-1 1
N=
10
Mode (Mo)

Mode is defined as the size of a variable (say

a score) which occurs more frequently.
It is the point on a score scale that
corresponds to the maximum frequency of
the distribution.
It is the most characteristic or the common
and is usually repeated the maximum
number of times in a series.
Calculation of Mode or Mo for ungrouped
data.
 Mode can be easily computed by merely looking at the
ungrouped data.
 We need to find out the score which is repeated maximum
number of times in a series..and that’s the mode!!
Example:
Find out the value of Mode from the following scored of
students:
25, 29, 24, 25, 27, 25, 28, 25, 29

Here the score 25 is repeated the maximum number of

times and thus, value of mode in this case is 25.
Practice makes a person perfect

Compute Mode for the following data:

1. 15, 14, 8, 14, 14, 11, 9, 9, 11
2. 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 7, 7, 9, 12
3. 23, 26, 29, 30, 23, 23, 30, 26, 24
Calculation of Mode or Mo for grouped data

Mode (Mo) = 3Md – 2M

When Median and Mean scores are available.
OR
MO = L + f1___ x i
f1 + f-1

L = lower limit of the model class ( the class in which mode

may be supposed to lie.
i = Class interval
f1 = Frequency of the class adjacent to the modal class for
which lower limit is greater than that for the modal class
f-1 = Frequency of the class adjacent to the modal class for
which the lower limit is less than that for the modal class