WHAT IS A STANDARD SCORE?

 To work with numbers, they need to be in the same language.

is a set of scores that have the same mean and standard
deviation so they can be compared. We will use IQ as our
common example to stitch all of this together. Mean is the
average of all of the scores and in the very center of a plotted
graph of scores (this will be explored later). The mean, or
average, IQ is 100. Standard deviation is a way of dividing
up the standard scores. This would be easier to see in graph
form.
Z-SCORES (STANDARD SCORES
 We can use the SD (s) to classify people
on any measured variable.
X 
z

 Why might you ever use this in real life?
 Diagnosis of a mental disorder
 Selecting the best person for the job
 Figuring out which children may need
special assistance in school
EXAMPLE FROM I/O
 Extraversion predicts managerial performance.
 The more extraverted you are, the better a manager you
will be (with everything else held constant, of course).
AN EXTRAVERSION TEST TO
EMPLOYEES

 Scores for current managers

 10, 25, 32, 35, 39, 40, 41, 45, 48, 55, 70
 N=11
 Need
X
 Xthe mean X 2(X ) 2
N
N s
N 1

 Need the standard deviation

X X2
10 100
25 625
LET’S DO IT
32 1024
 X 440
35 1225 X   40
N 11
39 1521
40 1600
41 1681 X 2( X ) 2
s N 
45 2025 N 1
48 2304 (440) 2
20030 
55 3025 11  15.58
11  1
70 4900
440 20030
SOMEBODY APPLIES FOR A JOB AS A
MANAGER

 Obtains a score of 42.

 Should I hire him?
 Somebody else comes in and has a score
of 44? What about her?
 What if the mean were still 40, but the s =
2?
HARDER EXAMPLE:
 Two people applying to graduate school
 Bob, GPA = 3.2 at Northwestern Michigan
 Mary, GPA = 3.2 at Southern Michigan
 Whom do we accept?
 What else do we need to know to determine who gets in?
SCHOOL PARAMETERS
 NWMU mean GPA = 3.0; SD = .1
 SMU mean GPA = 3.6; SD = .2
 THE MORAL OF THE STORY: We can compare people
across ANY two tests just by saying how many SD’s
they are from the mean.
 ONLY ONE TEST
 it might make sense to “rescore” everyone on that test in
terms of how many standard deviations each person is
from the mean.
 The “curve”
Z-SCORES & LOCATION IN A
DISTRIBUTION
 Standardization or Putting scores on a test into a
form that you can use to compare across tests.
These scores become known as “standardized”
scores.
 The purpose of z-scores, or standard scores, is to
identify and describe the exact location of every
score in a distribution
 z-score is the number of standard deviations a
particular score is from the mean.
(This is exactly what we’ve been doing for the
last however many minutes!)
Z-SCORES
 The sign tells whether the score is located above (+) or below
(-) the mean
 The number (magnitude) tells the distance between the score
and the mean in terms of number of standard deviations

T-SCORES

These scores range in intervals of 10 from 10 to 90 points. Fifty is

average on this scale, and the average range is usually between 40
and 60.
WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO WITH Z-
SCORES?
 Converting z-scores to X values
 Go backwards. Aaron says he had a z-score of 2.2 on the
Math SAT.
 Math SAT has a m = 500 and s = 100
 What was his SAT score?
USING Z-SCORES TO STANDARDIZE A
DISTRIBUTION
 Shape doesn’t change (Think of it as re-labeling)
 Mean is always 0
 SD is always 1
 Why is the fact that the mean is 0 and the SD is 1
useful?
 standardized distribution is composed of scores
that have been transformed to create
predetermined values for m and s
 Standardized distributions are used to make
dissimilar distributions comparable
DEMONSTRATION OF A Z-SCORE
TRANSFORMATION
 here’s an example of this in your book (on pg. 161). I’m
not going to ask you to do this on an exam, but I do want
you to look at this example. I think it helps to re-
emphasize the important characteristics of z-scores.
· The two distributions have exactly the same shape
· After the transformation to z-scores, the mean of the
distribution becomes 0
· After the transformation, the SD becomes 1
· For a z-score distribution, Sz = 0
· For a z-score distribution, Sz2 = SS = N (I will not
emphasize this point)
FINAL CHALLENGE
 Usingz-scores to make comparisons (Example
from pg. 112)
 Bob has a raw score of 60 on his psych exam
and a raw score of 56 on his biology exam.
 In
order to compare, need the mean & the SD of
each distribution
 Psych: m = 50 and s=10
 Bio: m = 48 and s=4
FINAL CHALLENGE II

 You could
 sketch the two distributions and locate his score in each
distribution
 Standardize the distributions by converting every score into a
z-score
 OR
 Transform
the two scores of interest into z-scores
 PSYCH SCORE = (60-50)/10 = 10/10 = +1
 BIO SCORE = (56-48)/4 = 8/4 = +2
 *Important element of this is INTERPRETATION*
OTHER LINEAR
TRANSFORMATIONS
 Steps for converting scores to another test
 Take the original score and make it a z-score using the first
test’s parameters
 Take the z-score and turn it into a “raw” score using the
second test’s parameters.
 Standard Score = mnew + zsnew
 See “Learning Checks” in text, these are a general idea
of what might be on the exam
SUMMITTED BY:

GROUP VII
 CRISELDA KEITH A. GRANDE
 ROSSELLE CORPUZ

 BEVERLY DOMINGO

 JHENA D. REPAREJO

 MARY ROSE RAMOS

SUMMITTED TO:
MRS.EMELYN CUDAPAS