Sociology 2205A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Percentile, Quartile, Interquartile Range
25 Apr 2018
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Lecture 3: measures of central tendency and dispersion. Central tendency: most typical, central, or common score of a variable. Three measures of central tendency: mode: the most common score, median: the score of the middle case, mean: the average score. Mode, median, and mean are three different statistics. They report three different kinds of information and will have the same value only in certain specific situations. They vary in terms of: level-of-measurement considerations, how they define central tendency. Dispersion = variety, diversity, amount of variation between the scores. The greater the dispersion of a variable, the greater the range of scores and the greater differences between the scores. Can be used with variables at all three levels of measurement. Most often used with nominal level variables. Finding the mode: count the number of times each score occurred, the score that occurs most often is the mode.
