AP PSYCHOLOGY

RESEARCH METHODS THINKING CRITICALLY WITH PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD AND DESCRIPTION

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
When a distribution of scores is skewed, which of the following is the most representative measure of central tendency?
A
Inference
B
Standard deviation
C
Mean
D
Median
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -The mean is the most frequently used measure of central tendency because it uses all values in the data set to give you an average. For data from skewed distributions, the median is better than the mean because it isn’t influenced by extremely large values.

Detailed explanation-2: -In a skewed distribution, the median is often a preferred measure of central tendency, as the mean is not usually in the middle of the distribution.

Detailed explanation-3: -Mean is generally considered the best measure of central tendency and the most frequently used one.

Detailed explanation-4: -For distributions that have outliers or are skewed, the median is often the preferred measure of central tendency because the median is more resistant to outliers than the mean.

Detailed explanation-5: -The mean is the most sensitive to skewness in a distribution. This is because a skewed distribution contains outliers. An outlier is an extreme value, compared to other values in a set of data.

There is 1 question to complete.