What is a measure of central tendency in psychology?
Central tendency refers to the middle of a data set or where the scores in a data set tend to fall. There are three measures of central tendency; these tell us the average score (mean), the middle of the score range (median), and the most frequent score (mode).
What is a measure of central tendency quizlet psychology?
Central tendency is a descriptive statistical measure that identifies the center of distribution. Central tendency is define as a statistical measure to determine a single score that defines the center of a distribution.
What are the 4 measures of central tendency psychology?
Psychology 320: Psychological Statistics
| Measures of Central Tendency | Associated Measure of Variability |
|---|---|
| Mean | Standard Deviation |
| Median | Semi-interquartile Range |
| Mode | Index of Dispersion |
How do you find a measure of central tendency?
The arithmetic mean of a dataset (which is different from the geometric mean) is the sum of all values divided by the total number of values. It’s the most commonly used measure of central tendency because all values are used in the calculation. Then you calculate the mean using the formula ⅀x/n.
Why is the mean an appropriate measure of central tendency?
The mean is the most frequently used measure of central tendency because it uses all values in the data set to give you an average. For data from skewed distributions, the median is better than the mean because it isn’t influenced by extremely large values.
What are the characteristics of good measure of central tendency?
Explanation:
- it should be Well defined and rigid.
- it should be easy to understand and calculate.
- it should be based on all the observations of the data.
- it should be suitable for further algebraic operations.
- it should be a stable measure.
What measure of central tendency best describes the center of the distribution?
Since the data set is not skewed, the central tendency that best describes the “center” of the distribution is the mean. The arithmetic mean of a variable is computed by adding all the values of the variable in the data set and dividing by the number of observations.
Which measure of central tendency is affected by extreme values?
The mean
The mean is the measure of central tendency most likely to be affected by an extreme value. Mean is the only measure of central tendency which depends on all the values as it is derived from the sum of the values divided by the number of observations.
Which is the most commonly used measure of central tendency?
Mean
Mean is the most commonly used measure of central tendency. There are different types of mean, viz. arithmetic mean, weighted mean, geometric mean (GM) and harmonic mean (HM).
Which of the measure of central is least affected by extreme values?
Median
Median is the least affected measure of central tendency by the extreme observations, whereas mean is the most affected measure of central tendency by the extreme observations.
Which measure of central tendency is not resistant to extreme values?
Note! When one has very skewed data, it is better to use the median as measure of central tendency since the median is not much affected by extreme values.
Which measure of central tendency is least efficient?
However, the mean does have several disadvantages. In particular, the mean is sensitive to skewed data. It is also sensitive to outliers. Thus, the mean often is misleading in highly skewed distributions and is less efficient than other measures of central tendency when extreme scores are possible.
Which measure of central tendency is most reliable when scores are extremely high and low?
Median. The median is the middle value in a distribution. It is the point at which half of the scores are above, and half of the scores are below. It is not affected by outliers, so the median is preferred as a measure of central tendency when a distribution has extreme scores.