1.3.

2 Descriptive Measures
Data is also summarized using descriptive measures focusing on, for
example, central tendency, dispersion, relative position, shape, and correlation
(leading to prediction). Software tools can help tremendously.

Measures of central tendency

A measure of central tendency is a summary measure that attempts to

describe a whole set of data with a single value that represents the middle or
center of the data set. The mean, median and mode are all valid measures of
central tendency.

Mean
One of the simplest and most efficient measures of central tendency is the
mean. It is the value obtained by adding the values in the distribution and dividing
the sum by the total number of values. Notice that all the values in the distribution
are taken into consideration when computing the value of the mean.

Median
The median is a positional measure defined as the middlemost value in
the distribution. Hence, this value divides a given set of data into two equal parts.
Mode
The third measure of central tendency known as the mode. This type of
average is the simplest both in concept and in application. By definition, the
mode is referred to as the most frequent value in the distribution.
Example

Data set: 12, 10, 10, 8, 12, 9, 13

12+ 10+10+8+12+9+ 13
mean = =10.57
7

Arrange the values in ascending order: 8, 9, 10, 10, 12, 12, 13. The

median is the ( ) ( )
n+1
2
th=
7+ 1
2
th = 4th value. Hence the median is 10.

This data set has two modes, namely, 10 and 12.

Measures of Dispersion

A measure of dispersion or variability tells us how much the observations

spread out from the mean. The higher the variability, the more dispersed are the
observations.; the lower it is, the more consistent is the observations.

The range is the difference between the highest and the lowest values in a
set. The standard deviation of a set of sample data can be obtained using the
√
formula s = n ∑ x 2−¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿. The standard deviation is the square root of the
variance.

Measure of Relative Position

The measure of relative position of a given value shows where the value
stands in relation to other values in the set of data. The most common measure
of relative position are percentiles, quartiles, and standard scores.

A percentile is a point in the sorted data set below which a given

percentage of scores fall. For example, if a score of 68 is at the eightieth
percentile ( P80 ¿ ¿, then 80 percent of the scores fall below 68. Quartiles are values
that divide the sorted data set into quarters. The first quartile Q1 is P25, the
second quartile Q2 is P50, and so on.

A standard score (or z-score) indicates how many standard deviations a

data value is from the mean. It is calculated from the following formula:

data value−mean
z=
standard deviation

A negative z-score represents a value less than the mean. A positive z-

score represents a value greater than the mean. When z = 0, the data value is
equal to the mean.

Measures of Shape

Measures of shape describe the pattern (or distribution) of the data within
a data set. A distribution of data values may be symmetrical or asymmetrical. In a
symmetrical distribution, the two sides of the are a mirror image of each other. In
an asymmetrical distribution, the two sides will not be mirror images of each
other.

Two common examples of symmetry and asymmetry are the normal

distribution and the skewed distribution. A normal distribution is a true symmetric
distribution of observed values. On the other hand, skewness is the tendency of
values to be more frequent around the high or low ends of the horizontal axis.

A distribution is said to positively skewed (or skewed to the right) when

most of the values tend to cluster toward the left side of the horizontal axis. A
distribution is said to negatively skewed (or skewed to the left) when most of the
values tend to cluster toward the right side.

If a distribution is symmetric, then the skewness value is 0. If skewness is

positive, the data is positively skewed. If skewness is negative, the data is
negatively skewed.

Measure of Correlation

A measure of correlation is a single number that describes the degree of

relationship between two variables. The linear correlation coefficient r (also
called Pearson’s r or simply r), for example, indicates how close the values fall to
a straight line. r is computed using the formula

r = n ∑ xy−¿ ¿ ¿.

Reference: Nocon, R. C. & Nocon, E.G. (2018). Essential

Mathematics for the Modern World. C & E Publishing, Inc.