AP PSYCHOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Median is the preferred measure of central tendency when: There are a few extreme scores in the distribution of the data.

Detailed explanation-2: -Arithmetic mean takes into account the value of all items (i.e. very large and very small) in a series. Thus, it is only arithmetic mean which is affected by extreme values in the series.

Detailed explanation-3: -Mean is the only measure of central tendency that is always affected by an outlier. Mean, the average, is the most popular measure of central tendency.

Detailed explanation-4: -The mean is the measure of central tendency most likely to be affected by an extreme value. Mean is the only measure of central tendency which depends on all the values as it is derived from the sum of the values divided by the number of observations. Median depends only on one or two middle most values.

Detailed explanation-5: -Statisticians state that “the mean is the most unbiased measure of central tendency". The median gives the greatest weight to elements in the middle of the ordered data. When there are extreme numbers in the data set (very low or very high numbers), the median is a good choice for a measure of central tendency.