Measures of Central

Tendency
Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to
Understand the concept of measures of
central Tendency.
Calculate Mean, Median and Mode of
the data
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to speak to the class teacher is talking not disturb others. materials when the bell rings

Respect your Actively participate in

Wait for your turn to Keep your place clean
classmates, yourself the class
answer and organized
and your teacher
01 02 03
Starter & Lead in 1st Objective Task and Activity 1st Objective Assessment for
(Individual Task) Learning (Individual)
07 Plenary

04 05 06
Today’s Challenge 2nd Objective Task and Activity 2nd Objective Assessment for
(Class) (Collaborative Task) Learning (Individual)
Discussion ( 3 minutes)
Measures of Central Tendency
 Central Tendency = The central or average
value of data
Three main measures of central tendency:
Mean

Median

Mode
Measures of Central Tendency
Mode = Most repeated value of data
40
35
30
Frequency

25
20
15
10
5
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
DV
 Measures of Central Tendency
Mode =
Data Point Frequency
0 2
1 5
2 7
3 14
4 15
5 8
6 5
Measures of Central Tendency
Median = the middle number when data
are arranged in numerical order
 Data: 3 5 1
 Step 1: Arrange in numerical order
1 3 5
 Step 2: Pick the middle number (3)
 Data: 3 5 7 11 14 15
 Median =
 Measures of Central Tendency
Median

Data Point Frequency

0 2
1 5
2 7
3 14
4 15
5 8
6 5
Arithmetic Mean
 Measures of Central Tendency
Mean = Average =

Data Point Frequency

0 2 0
1 5 5
2 7 14
3 14 42
4 15 60
5 8 40
6 5 30
Measures of Central Tendency
Occasionally we may need to add or
subtract, multiply or divide, a certain fixed
number (constant) to all values in our
dataset
 i.e. curving a test
 What do you think would happen to the
average score if 4 points were added to each
score?
 What would happen if each score was
doubled?
 Measures of Central Tendency
Characteristics of the Mean
 Adding or subtracting a constant from each score also adds or

subtracts the same number from the mean

i.e. adding 10 to all scores in a sample will increase the mean of
these scores by 10
X = 751 Mean = 751/56 = 13.41

Data Point + 10 Frequency X

0 10
1 11
2 12
3 13
4 14
5 15
6 16
2 20
5 55
7 84
14 182
15 210
8 120
5 80
 Measures of Central Tendency
Characteristics of the Mean
 Multiplying or dividing a constant from each score has similar
effects upon the mean
i.e. multiplying each score in a sample by 10 will increase the
mean by 10x
X = 1910 Mean = 1910/56 = 34.1
Data Point x10 Frequency X
0 0 2 0
1 10 5 50
2 20 7 140
3 30 14 420
4 40 15 600
5 50 8 400
6 60 5 300
Measures of Central Tendency
Advantages and Disadvantages of the
Measures:
 Mode
1. Typically a number that actually occurs in dataset
2. Has highest probability of occurrence
3. Applicable to Nominal, as well as Ordinal,
Interval and Ratio Scales
4. Unaffected by extreme scores
5. But not representative if multimodal with peaks
far apart (see next slide)
Measures of Central Tendency
Mode
60

50
Frequency

40

30

20

10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
DV
Measures of Central Tendency
Advantages and Disadvantages of the
Measures:
 Median
1. Also unaffected by extreme scores
Data: 5 8 11 Median = 8
Data: 5 8 5 million Median = 8
2. Usually its value actually occurs in the data
3. But cannot be entered into equations, because there is no
equation that defines it
4. And not as stable from sample to sample, because
dependent upon the number of scores in the sample
Measures of Central Tendency
Advantages and Disadvantages of the
Measures:
 Mean
1. Defined algebraically
2. Stable from sample to sample
3. But usually does not actually occur in the data
4. And heavily influenced by outliers
Data: 5 8 11 Mean = 8
Data: 5 8 5 million Mean = 1,666,671
Measures of Central Tendency
Advantages and Disadvantages of the
Measures:

 Mean
Sums/totals vs. average or mean values

 i.e. Basketball player has 134 total points this season,

while average of other players is 200 points

 What would most people reasonably conclude?

Measures of Central Tendency

 What if he played fewer games than other players (due

to injury)?

 Looking at averages, the player actually averaged ~50

pts. per game, but has only played three games,
whereas other players average 20 or less pts. over more
games

 Using this much richer information, our conclusions

would be completely different – AVERAGES ARE
ALWAYS MORE INFORMATIVE THAN SIMPLE SUMS