Chapter 1. Descriptive Statistics: Measures of Central Tendency
Introduction to Central Tendency
The main purpose of descriptive statistics is to summarize sample data in such a way that it becomes easier for the researcher to identify patterns in the data. One particularly useful way in which a distribution of scores can be summarized is to identify where the center of the distribution is located. To determine the location of the center of a distribution, a number of measures of central tendency can be calculated.
Central tendency
Definition
Central tendency is a statistical measure that is used to identify a single score that describes the center of a distribution.
The purpose of central tendency is to find a typical or average score that best represents the entire distribution.
Measures
\[\begin{array}{rl}
\boldsymbol{\tiny{\bullet}}&\text{Mode}\\
\boldsymbol{\tiny{\bullet}}&\text{Median}\\
\boldsymbol{\tiny{\bullet}}&\text{Mean}\\
\end{array}\]
#\phantom{0}#
The coming sections will introduce the following three measures of central tendency: the mode, median, and mean. Each of these measures defines the center of a distribution in a different way and depending on the circumstances one measure might be more appropriate than the others.
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