PSYC 1000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Descriptive Statistics, Central Tendency

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1000
• Professor: Paula Barata

Document Summary

Descriptive statistics: a set of techniques used to organize, summarize, and interpret data. Frequency: the number of observations that fall within a certain category or range or range of scores. Normal distribution: a symmetrical distribution with values clustered around a central, mean value. Negatively skewed distribution: a distribution in which the curve has an extended tail to the left of the cluster. Positively skewed distribution: a distribution in which the long tail is on the right of the cluster. Central tendency: a measure of the central point of a distribution. Mean: the arithmetic average of a set of numbers. Median: the 50th percentile-the point on the horizontal axis at which 50% of all observations are lower and 50% of all observations are higher. Mode: which is the category with the highest frequency (that it is the category with the observations) Variability: the degree to which scores are dispersed in a distribution.