Measure of Central Tendency

Central Tendency
• In statistics, a central tendency is a central value or a typical value for a
probability distribution.
• A measure of central tendency is a Typical value around which other
figures congregate.
• Average is an attempt to find an single figure to describe a group of
figures.
• It is occasionally called an average or just the center of the distribution.
• The most common measures of central tendency are the arithmetic
mean, the median and the mode.
• Measures of central tendency are defined for a population(large set of
objects of a similar nature) and for a sample (portion of the elements of a
population).
• A measure of central tendency is a single value that attempts to describe
a set of data by identifying the central position within that set of data.
 Measures of Central Tendency:
 Measure of central tendency are:
 Mathematical average
Arithmetic mean simply mean
Geometric mean
Harmonic mean
 Positional average

Median
Mode
Mean, median and mode are the most commonly used MCT in health
science
 Characteristics of an Ideal/good MCT

 It should be rigidly defined so that different persons may not interpret

it differently.
 It should be easy to understand and easy to calculate.
 It should be based on all the observations of the data.
 It should be easily subjected to further mathematical treatment.
 It should be least affected by the sampling fluctuation .
 It should not be unduly affected by the extreme values.
 Arithmetic Mean (AM) or Mean
It is defined as sum of all the values divided by number of values.
Un Group Data
 Ungrouped data is the data you first gather from an experiment or study. The
data is raw — that is, it’s not sorted into categories, classified, or otherwise
grouped.
Group Data
 Grouped data is data that has been bundled together in categories
 Merits, Demerits and Uses of Mean
Merits
 It can be easily calculated.
 Its calculation is based on all the observations.
 It is easy to understand.
 It is rigidly defined by the mathematical formula.
 It is least affected by sampling fluctuations.
 It is the best measure to compare two or more series of data.
 It does not depend upon any position.
Demerits
 It may not be represented in actual data so it is theoretical.
 It is affected by extreme values.
 It can not be calculated if all the observations are not known.
 It can not be used for qualitative data i.e. love, beauty ,
honesty, etc.
 It may lead to fallacious conditions in the absence of original
observations.
Use of Mean
 It is extremely used in medical statistics.
 Estimates are always obtained by mean.
Median

• Median is what divides the data in the distribution into two equal
parts.
• Fifty percent (50%) lies below the median value and 50% lies above
the median value.
• It is also known as the middle score or middle value.
Median of Ungrouped Data
1. Arrange the scores (from lowest to highest or highest to
Lowest).
2. Determine the middle most score in a distribution if n is an odd
number and get the average of the two middle most scores if n is
an even number.
3. For ungrouped data: median = [(n+1)/2]th observation, if n is
odd.
4. Median = mean of (n/2)th observation or
[(n/2)+1]th observation, if n is even.
 Properties of the Median
 It may not be an actual observation in the data set.
 It can be applied in ordinal level.
 It is not affected by extreme values because median is a
positional measure.
Median of grouped Data
Formula:
h n
Median  l  (  C f )
f 2 n
X̃ = median value = median class is a class in which   th fall
2
L = Lower boundary point of median class
f = frequency of the median class
CF = cumulative frequency of the previous class to middle class
h = class interval
 application
 Median is used to find middle most data. It is used to determine a point from where
50% of data is more & 50% data is less. It is used where extreme cases can be
ignored.
 MODE
The mode or the modal score is a score or scores that occurred most in the
distribution.

It is classified as unimodal, bimodal, trimodal or muliti modal.

Unimodal is a distribution of scores that consists of only one mode.

Bimodal is a distribution of scores that consists of two modes.

Trimodal is a distribution of scores that consists of three modes or

multimodal is a distribution of scores that consists of more than two
modes.
MODE
Mode for Grouped Data

In solving the mode value in grouped data, use the formula:

f m  f1
Mode  l  *h
In this,
 fm  f1    fm  f2 
L = lower class boundary of model class
H = class interval
Fm = frequency of the model (ideal mode)
F1 = frequency of previous class than model class
F2 = frequency of next class than model class
Mode for ungrouped data
Mode of an ungrouped data is equal to the most frequent observation in
the data. Data can consists of more than one mode. A data distribution
with one mode value is called unimodal whereas distributions with more
than one mode values is called multimodal (they can be bimodal, trimodal
etc.)
 MODE
Properties of the Mode

• It can be used when the data are qualitative as well as

quantitative.

• It is not affected by extreme values.

• It can be calculated graphically .

 application
 Mode is used where we need to find the most frequent data. E.g. if we need
to find the most favorite Subject of students in a given class, mode can be
used.
Merits demerits and use of Mode
 Merits:
 Mode is readily comprehensible and easy to calculate.
 Mode is not at all affected by extreme values,
 Mode can be conveniently located even if the frequency distribution has class-intervals of
unequal magnitude provided the modal class and the classes preceding and succeeding
it are of the same magnitude

 Demerits
 Mode is ill-defined. Not always possible to find a clearly defined mode.
 It is not based upon all the observations,
 It is not amenable to further mathematical treatment
 When data sets contain two, three, or many modes, they are difficult to interpret and
compare.
 Use: Mode is useful for qualitative data.