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Measures of Central Tendency
Rick Balkin, Ph.D, LPC-S, NCC, 2008
Statistical Measure
 Measures of central tendency—describe points along an
ordered scale
 Mean
 Median
 Mode
 Measures of spread or dispersion—describe variability in a
distribution
 Range
 Variance
 Standard deviation
Statistical Measure
 Measures of relative position- Standard scores
 Percentile rank
 Percentile score
 Measures of relationship
 Correlation coefficient
The Mean
 It is the sum of all of the raw scores divided by the total
number of scores in the distribution
The Mean: The arithmetic average
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21/6 = 3.5
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The Mean
 Probably the most useful of all statistical measures
 With small samples, the mean is heavily influenced by
extreme scores
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The Median
 That point in a distribution above and below which half of the
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The Median
 That point in a distribution above and below which half of the
scores fall
 Measures position rather than magnitude
 Is the middle score
 If two scores fall in the middle, the median is the midpoint
between the two
The median
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Md = 4
The median
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Md= 3.50
The median
 The median is the best measure of central tendency when the
distribution is small or extremely skewed
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 Mean = 4, Md = 4
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 Mean = 10, Md = 4
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Mode
 Score that occurs most frequently in a distribution
 There can be more than one mode
 Bimodal or multimodal
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Mo=4
What measures of central tendency look like
Group Exercise
 Calculate the mean, median, and mode
Group Exercise
 Answers are rounded to the nearest hundredth
 Mean
 79.14
 Median
 80
 Mode
 80
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