0.16. Descriptive Statistics

Question 1

What is the mean?

Answer 1

The average

Question 2

How do you find the mean?

Answer 2

Add all the data figures up and divide by total number in the data set

Question 3

What is a strength of the mean?

Answer 3

Takes into account all data in a data set - it is sensitive

Question 4

What is a weakness of the mean?

Answer 4

Can be skewed by extreme scores

Question 5

What is the median?

Answer 5

The middle

Question 6

How do you find the median?

Answer 6

• line up all data in the data set and do smallest-largest
• find the middle figure

Question 7

What are the strengths of the median?

Answer 7

• not distorted by extreme figures
• used for ordinal data

Question 8

What is the weakness of the median?

Answer 8

Doesn’t tell us much about the data, just the middle number

Question 9

What is the mode?

Answer 9

The most occurring

Question 10

How do you find the mode?

Answer 10

Line up all the data in the data set in order smallest to largest, find the ones that occur the most

Question 11

What is a strength of the mode?

Answer 11

• used for nominal data/ to show frequency

Question 12

What is a weakness of the mode?

Answer 12

• not always one mode, sometimes lots of modes

Question 13

What is a measure of dispersion?

Answer 13

• the range
• standard deviation

Question 14

What is a measure of central tendancy?

Answer 14

• mean
• median
• mode

Question 15

What is the range

Answer 15

highest to lowest

Question 16

What is a strength of the range?

Answer 16

• easy to calculate

Question 17

What is a weakness of the range?

Answer 17

• might be affected if the highest to lowest is extreme

Question 18

What is standard deviation?

Answer 18

• Spread of scores around the mean (average-need the mean)
• the larger the number, the greater the spread
• smaller number = closer to the mean

Question 19

What is a strength of standard deviation?

Answer 19

• most precise measure of dispersion

Question 20

What is a weakness of standard deviation?

Answer 20

• only used for interval data (and need the mean first)