Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Range
Mean
Std. Deviation
Statistic
Statistic
Statistic
Statistic
Skewness
Statistic
Kurtosis
Std. Error
Statistic
Std. Error
GPA
88
3.33
2.4563
.86143
-.352
.257
-.649
.508
ENGG
88
2.66
.945
-.264
.257
-.414
.508
IQ
88
62
100.26
12.985
.394
.257
-.163
.508
Valid N (listwise)
88
Figure 1: The above are the descriptive statistics for the following variables in the ADDSC data
set: GPA, ENGG, IQ computed for Unit 3a1. Adapted from ADDSC scores [Data file], by
Howell, David C., 2009, Statistical Home Page Web site, available from
http://www.uvm.edu/~dhowell/StatPages/
Figure 1 was used as an assessment tool for Unit 3a1 and indicated the skewness of both the GPA
(-.352) and ENGG (-.264) were negative, whereas the skewness of the IQ (.394) was positive. All of
the above kurtosis values in Fig. 1 (GPA: -.649, ENGG: -.414, IQ: -.163) are negative typically
indicating a platykurtic distribution.
Statistic
GPA
Mean
2.4563
Lower Bound
2.2737
Upper Bound
2.6388
Std. Error
.09183
Mean
5% Trimmed Mean
2.4746
Median
2.6350
Variance
Std. Deviation
.742
.86143
Minimum
.67
Maximum
4.00
Range
3.33
Interquartile Range
1.25
Skewness
-.352
.257
Kurtosis
-.649
.508
Figure 2: The above are the detailed descriptive statistics for the following variables in the
ADDSC data set: GPA, ENGG, IQ computed for Unit 4a1. Adapted from ADDSC scores
[Data file], by Howell, David C., 2009, Statistical Home Page Web site, available from
http://www.uvm.edu/~dhowell/StatPages/
Histogram Analysis for Continuous Variables: GPA, ENGG and IQ
Figure 3: Histogram for GPA
Figure 3: The above is a histogram for the variable GPA. Adapted from ADDSC scores [Data
file], by Howell, David C., 2009, Statistical Home Page Web site, available from
http://www.uvm.edu/~dhowell/StatPages/
In Fig. 3 the above histogram for the variable GPA is asymmetrical and appears to have a
negative skew, leptokurtic kurtosis and is bimodal. The negative skew matches this authors estimate
from the descriptive statistics of u03a1. Furthermore, a closer look at the more detailed descriptive
Figure 4: The above is a histogram for the variable ENGG. Adapted from ADDSC scores
[Data file], by Howell, David C., 2009, Statistical Home Page Web site, available from
http://www.uvm.edu/~dhowell/StatPages/
Figure 5: The above is a histogram for the variable IQ. Adapted from ADDSC scores [Data
file], by Howell, David C., 2009, Statistical Home Page Web site, available from
http://www.uvm.edu/~dhowell/StatPages/
In Fig. 5 the above histogram for the variable IQ is asymmetrical and appears to have a positive
skew, leptokurtic kurtosis and is bimodal. The positive skew matches this authors estimate from the
descriptive statistics of u03a1. The mean of (100.26) for IQ is greater than the median (100.0), which
indicates that the skew is positive as well.
However, what appears to be a leptokurtic kurtosis again does not match this authors estimate
in u03a1 based upon the negative kurtosis statistic of -.163, which typically indicates a platykurtic or
flat distribution. The standard deviation (SD) of 12.985 is high in comparison to the other
variables, which normally indicates a platykurtic distribution as well. The IQ variance of 168.609
also typically indicates a platykurtic distribution with a wide dispersion of scores from the mean.
Summary
Comparisons between the descriptive statistics of variables GPA, ENGG, and IQ in u03a1 and
the visual inspection of the histograms of these variables in u04a1 indicated similarities in skewness,
but differences in variance and kurtosis. This is in part due to the large scores located around the
mean in each of the variables which made the distributions in the histograms appear leptokurtic, not
platykurtic according to the negative kurtosis value. In the case of IQ, the tail of the positive skew in
the histogram is dispersed with large scores which increase the SD and variance and typically
decrease the kurtosis value. Here is where visual inspection of the histograms becomes critical when
analyzing variable distributions of this nature.
References
Howell, D.C. (2008). Fundamental statistics for the behavioral sciences (6th ed.). Belmont, CA:
Thomson Wadsworth. ISBN: 9780495099000.
Howell, D.C. (2009). Statistical Home Page. ADD scores [Data file]. Retrieved July 24, 2011
from http://www.uvm.edu/~dhowell/StatPages/