Measures of Central Tendency

Measures of location
(Indices of central tendency)

These indices locate the center of the frequency

distribution curve.
The mode, median, and mean are three indices of
central tendency:
Mode = the most frequently occurring observation
Median = that measurement level below which half
the observations fall, the 5th percentile
Mean =
sum of the observed measurements
Number of observations
For any symmetrical distribution, the mean, median,
and mode will be identical.

The Arithmetic Mean

The balancing point of the distribution curve
(even if not strictly normal).

The sum of negative deviations from the mean exactly equals

the sum of positive deviations from the mean.

Advantages & Disadvantages of the Mean

Advantages:

-Mathematical center of a distribution.

-Good for interval and ratio data.
-Does not ignore any information.
-Inferential statistics is based on mathematical
properties of the mean.

Disadvantages:

-Influenced by extreme scores and skewed

distributions.
-May not exist in the data.

The Median
The middle of a set of data that has been put into
ascending or descending order.

It is the value that divides a set of data into two halves,

with one half of the observations being larger than the
median value, and one half smaller.

Advantages & Disadvantages of the Median

Advantages:
- Not influenced by extreme scores or skewed
distribution.
- Good with ordinal data.
-Easier to compute than the mean.
-Considered as the typical observation.

Disadvantages:

- May not exist in the data.

- Does not take actual values into account.

The Mode

The value that occurs most often in a set of data.

There may be more than one mode for a distribution of
data.

Advantages & Disadvantages of the Mode

Advantages:
- Good with nominal data.
- Bimodal distribution might verify clinical
observations (pre and post-menopausal breast
cancer).
- Easy to compute and understand.
- The score exists in the data set.

Disadvantages:

- Ignore most of the information in a distribution.

- Small samples may not have a mode
- More than one mode might exist.

Central tendency and skew

Since the mean is drawn in the direction of outliers.

And median is unaffected by number of outliers,

The mode is always the most frequent observation.

Relationship between mean, median and mode may give

some indicating of the shape of the frequency
distribution without having to create a histogram

Skewed right (positive)

(+)

Mode

Median

Mean

Skewed left (negative)

(-)

Mean

Median

Mode

Measures of Location

Median

Quartiles

Deciles

Percentiles