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Central Tendency

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What is central tendency? Explain three important measures of central tendency?



Measures of central tendency are scores that represent the center of the distribution. Three of the most common measures of central tendency are:




Mean Median Mode





The Mean
The mean is the arithmetic average of the scores.


Mean is the average of the scores in a distribution

_ X

=

_________ i N

Σ Xi

Mean Example
Exam Scores 75 91 82 78 72 94 68 88 89 75

ΣX =sum all scores n = total number of scores for the sample



Pros
– – –

Pros and cons of using mean

Summarizes data in a way that is easy to understand. Uses all the data Used in many statistical applications Affected …show more content…

The range is $31,000 ­ $22,000 = $9,000.



Mean Deviation


The mean deviation takes into consideration all of the values Mean Deviation: The arithmetic mean of the absolute values of the deviations from the arithmetic mean. x−x



∑ MD =

n

Where:

X = the value of each observation n = the number of observations

X = the arithmetic mean of the values || = the absolute value (the signs of the deviations are disregarded)

Frequency Distribution Mean Deviation


If the data are in the form of a frequency distribution, the mean deviation can be _ calculated using the following formula: ∑ f | x−x| MD = ∑f

Where:

f = the frequency of an observation x

n = Σ f = the sum of the frequencies

Frequency Distribution MD Example


Exercise
Number of outstanding accounts 0 1 2 3 4 Total: Frequency 1 9 7 3 4 24 fx 0 9 14 9 16 |x­x| 2 1 0 1 2 f|x­x| 2 9 0 3 8

Σ fx = 48

Σ f|x­x| = 22
MD =

x=

_

∑ fx ∑f

mean = 48/24 = 2

∑ f | x−x| ∑f

_

MD = 22/24 = 0.92

Standard Deviation


Standard deviation is the most commonly used measure of

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