CENTRAL TENDENCY

INTRODUCTION TO CENTRAL
TENDENCY
Measures of central tendency are single values that have the “tendency” to
be near the “center” of a distribution and can serve as a representative for
the entire distribution
Useful for making comparisons between sets of individuals or between sets
of figures
Three measures of central tendency: mean, median, and mode
Stated differently for populations and samples, but are calculated the same
way except for the notations used to represent population and sample size
N = Population size
n = Sample size
THE MEAN
Most commonly reported measure of central tendency
Often referred to as the “balance point” in a distribution
Arithmetic mean or average
The mean is the sum (Ʃ) of a set of scores (x) divided by the
number of scores summed, in either a sample (n), or a population
(N)
Population mean: Sample mean:
σ𝑥 σ𝑥
𝜇= 𝑀=
𝑁 𝑛
THE MEAN
A clinical psychologist records the number of symptoms
expressed for attention deficit disorder (ADD) by a group
of five children (N = 5), in a teacher’s classroom. Suppose
this is the only group of interest to the researcher. So this
group constitute population of children that the researcher
is interested in. The psychologist records the following
number of symptoms in this population: 3, 6, 4, 7, and 5.
What is the average number of symptoms expressed by
this population?
Population mean:
σ𝑥
𝜇=
𝑁
3+6+4+7+5
=
5
25
=
5

𝜇=5
THE MEAN
In an experimental set up where a sample participants
(n = 8) must walk past presumably a scary portion of the
campus after dark, fear was operationalized as the record
of how quickly the participants walked through the scary
section of the campus. The following times are recorded in
seconds: 8, 9, 5, 5, 5, 10, 6, and 8. What is the mean time
of participants?
Sample mean:
σ𝑥
𝑀=
𝑛
8+9+5+5+5+10+6+8
=
8
56
=
8
𝑀=7
The mean acts as a balance point for the
distribution
Distance of X below the Distance of X above the
𝝁 −𝑿
mean mean
2 5–3

5–6 1

1 5–4

5–7 2

5–5

3 3
 No Alcohol With Alcohol
• You conducted a study
examining the effects of 5 9
alcohol consumption on the 9 7
perceived attractiveness of the 6 7
opposite sex. To do this, you 8 8
asked the applicants to report
their alcohol consumption for 9 9
the day. This allowed you to 5 8
have two groups of participants 7 8
(No Alcohol (n=10), With
Alcohol (n=8). The data you 8 7
collected were presented on the 8
table. What are the means for 8
the two groups you collected?
M = 7.3 M = 7.9
• You conducted a math ability 78 85
test for a group of elementary 88 75
students (N = 16). Their scores 93 83
out of 100 points are recorded 89 76
on the table. Suppose you
consider them as your 76 93
population, compute for their 93 89
average score. 87
94
85
78
µ = 85.13
THE WEIGHTED MEAN
The combined mean of two or more groups of scores in which the
number of scores in each group is disproportionate or unequal

Formula for weighted mean:

σ(𝑀∗𝑛) 𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑢𝑚
𝑀𝑤 = σ𝑛
or
𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑛
THE WEIGHTED MEAN
Sample M n
Lean 46 12
Overweight 58 14
Obese 73 30
46+58+73
Arithmetic Mean = = 59.0
3
(46𝑥12)+(58𝑥14)+(73𝑥30)
Weighted Mean =
(12+14+30)
3,554
=
56
𝑀𝑤 = 63.46 or 63.5
Your grades are also examples of
Weighted Mean
 Subject Units Grade
GEFIL02 3 92
GESCIE+ 3 94
FAITH02 3 95
GESELF+ 3 93
BIOLOGY 5 90
PSYSTAT 5 88
NSTP200 3 98
RHYTHM+ 2 100
σ(𝑀∗𝑛) 92∗3 + 94∗3 + 95∗3 + 93∗3 + 90∗5 + 88∗5 + 98∗3 + 100∗2
𝑀𝑤 = σ𝑛
= (3+3+3+3+5+5+2)

=
276+282+285+279+450+440+294+200 𝑀𝑤 = 92.81
27
2506
= 27
• I handle 7 sections of the course Understanding the Self – each
section having different number of students. All seven sections
undergone a 60-item major examination. Their class size and their
respective average scores are presented in the table below. What
then is the average score of all the students from all the classes I
handle?
Section Average Score Class Size
A 38 25
B 42 37
C 48 41
D 45 34
E 49 27
F 41 33
G 39 29
 σ(𝑀∗𝑛)
𝑀𝑤= σ𝑛
38∗25 + 42∗37 + 48∗41 + 45∗34 + 49∗27 +(41∗33)+(39∗29)
=
25+37+41+34+27+33+29
950+1554+1968+1530+1323+1353+1131
=
226
9809
=
226

𝑀𝑤= 43.40
• The board exam for psychometricians have the following
weights for the subjects included in the actual test: 20%
Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 20% Theories of
Personality, 20% Abnormal Psychology, and 40%
Psychological Assessment. Two psychology graduates took
the exam and got the following scores recorded in the table
below. Compute for their respective weight averages.
Psych Weighted
Name IO Psych TOP ABPsych
Assessment Average

Cookie 89 78 82 75 79.8

Jinnie 78 86 79 83 81.8
THE MEDIAN
The median is the midpoint in a distribution. If you list a
set of scores in a numeric order, the median is the middle
score
𝑛+1
Median Position =
2
WHEN THE NUMBER OF SCORES IN A
DISTRIBUTION IS ODD
Order the list of scores from least to most (or vice versa),
and find the middle number
Example: 3, 6, 5, 3, 8, 6, 7 (n=7) 3, 3, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8
Step 1. Place the each score in a numeric order
Step 2. Locate the position of the middle score
Step 3. Count the scores from left to right (or right to left)
WHEN THE NUMBER OF SCORES IN A
DISTRIBUTION IS EVEN
Order the list of scores from least to most (or vice versa),
and find the middle number
Example: 3, 6, 5, 3, 8, 6 (n=6) 3, 3, 5, 6, 6, 8
Step 1. Place the each score in a numeric Median
order = 5.5
Step 2. Locate the position of the middle score
Step 3. Select the middle pair of scores, add them together,
and divide by 2
THE MODE
The median is the score that occurs most often in a
distribution
Step 1. List a set of scores in a numeric order
Step 2. Count the score that occurs most often
THE MODE
A researcher recorded the number of symptoms for major
depressive disorder (MDD) expressed in a small sample of
20 “at-risk” participants: 0, 4, 3, 6, 5, 2, 3, 3, 5, 4, 6, 3, 5,
6, 4, 0, 0, 3, 0, and 1. How many symptoms of MDD did
participants in this sample most commonly express?
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MEAN
Changing an existing score will
change the mean
When you increase the value of an existing score, the
mean will increase; when you decrease the value of an
existing score, the mean will decrease
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MEAN
Adding a new score or removing an existing
score will change the mean unless that value
equals the mean
Adding a new score less than the mean will decrease the
mean or make it shift toward a smaller score
Adding a new score more than the mean will increase the
mean or make it shift toward that larger score
Deleting a score below the mean will increase the value of
the mean
Deleting a score above the mean will decrease the value of
the mean
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MEAN
Adding a new score or removing an existing
score will change the mean unless that value
equals the mean
The only time the value of the mean will not change is if
the score added or deleted is exactly equal to the mean
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MEAN
Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or
dividing each score in a distribution by a
constant will cause the mean to change by
that constant
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MEAN

The sum of the differences of scores from

their mean is zero
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MEAN
The sum of the squared differences of
scores from their mean is minimal.
Replacing the mean with any other value
produces a larger solution
WHEN TO USE THE MEAN
When describing normal distribution
When describing interval and ratio scale data
WHEN TO USE THE MEDIAN
When describing skewed distributions
When describing ordinal scale data
WHEN TO USE THE MODE
When describing modal distributions
When describing nominal scale data