Basic Statistical Tools:
Measures of Central
Tendency; Dispersion and
Skewness
PREPARED BY
PAWAN BORA
SHASHANK GAUR
Statistics is used as a tool in designing research,
analyzing its data and drawing conclusions
thereafter
The important statistical measures used to
summarise the research data are:-
Measures of central tendency
Measures of dispersion
Skewness (measures of asymmetry)
Measures of relationship
Index numbers, analysis of time series etc.
MEASURES OF CENTRAL
TENDENCY
These are the statistical averages which tell
us the point about which items have a
tendency to cluster.
Different statistical averages are
Mean
Median
Mode
MEAN/ ARITHMETIC AVERAGE
Mean = (Σ Xi) / n = X1+X2+…..+Xn/n
In case of frequency distribution
Mean = ∑fi Xi / ∑ fi
Advantage of using mean is that it
approaches almost the middle score of the
distribution
Limitation is that it unduly gets affected by
extreme scores
MEDIAN
It is the Middle-most Value of any collected
data when the values are arranged in
increasing or decreasing order of magnitude
50% of observations are above the Median,
50% are below it
The difference in magnitude between the
observations does not matter
Therefore, it is not sensitive to outliers
Formula Median = n + 1 / 2
MODE
It is the most frequently occurring value in a
series.
11 45 23 43 56 43 28 34 65 33 43
Not influenced by extreme measurements.
There can be more than one mode for a set
of variables
DISPERSION
Measures of dispersion help us to give an
idea about the scatter of the values of items
of a variable in the series around the true
value of average
Important measures of dispersion are
Range
Mean deviation
Standard deviation
RANGE
Range= (Highest value of an item in series)-
(Lowest value of an item in a series)
Gives us the difference between two
extremes, thus giving us an idea of the
variability.
Drawback is that the range gets affected by
the fluctuations of sampling.
MEAN DEVIATION
It is the average of difference of the values of items
from average of the series
We could just calculate the average distance between
each observation and the mean.
Formula:
| X Xi |
n
MEAN DEVIATION: AN EXAMPLE
Data: X = {6, 10, 5, 4, 9, 8} X = 42 / 6 = 7
X – Xi Abs. Dev. 1. Compute X (Average)
7–6 1 2. Compute X – X and take
the Absolute Value to
7 – 10 3 get Absolute Deviations
7–5 2 3. Sum the Absolute
7–4 3 Deviations
4. Divide the sum of the
7–9 2 absolute deviations by N
7–8 1
Total: 12 12 / 6 = 2
STANDARD DEVIATION
Most widely used measure of dispersion of a series,
denoted by σ
It shows how much variation or "dispersion" there is
from the "average" (mean, or expected/budgeted
value). A low standard deviation indicates that the
data points tend to be very close to the mean,
whereas high standard deviation indicates that the
data are spread out over a large range of values.
s
(X X ) i
2
N
EXAMPLE:
Data: X = {6, 10, 5, 4, 9, 8}; N=6
Mean:
X X X (X X ) 2
X
X
42
7
6 -1 1 N 6
10 3 9 Variance:
5 -2 4
s 2 ( X X ) 2
28
4.67
4 -3 9 N 6
9 2 4 Standard Deviation:
8 1 1 s s 2 4.67 2.16
Total: 42 Total: 28
SKEWNESS
Skewness is a measure of the asymmetry and shows the
manner in which the items are clustered around the
average.
The skewness value can be positive or negative, or even
undefined
Qualitatively, a negative skew indicates that the tail on
the left side of the probability density function
is longer than the right side and the bulk of the values
(including the median) lie to the right of the mean.
A positive skew indicates that the tail on the right side
is longer than the left side and the bulk of the values
lie to the left of the mean.
Mean < Median < Mode Mode < Median < Mean
Skewness= mean – mode
And its coefficient (j)
= (mean – mode) / standard deviation
• Significant in studying the
formation of the series and can
give the idea about shape of the
curve
KURTOSIS
Kurtosis (from the Greek word kurtos,
meaning bulging) is a measure of the
"peakedness" of the curve
A bell shaped curve is mesokurtic
If the curve is relatively more peaked, it is
leptokurtic
Whereas, if the curve is flatter than the
normal curve, it is platykurtic
red, kurtosis 3
orange, kurtosis 2
green, kurtosis 1.2,
black, kurtosis 0,
(N)ormal distribution
cyan, kurtosis
−0.593762…,
blue, kurtosis −1
magenta, kurtosis
−1.2,
Knowing the shape of the distribution curve
is important for statistical tools in research
purpose since most methods make specific
assumptions about the nature of the
distribution curve.
O U
K Y
A N
T H