MEASURES OF DISPERSION OR VARIABILITY

Variability measures the spread or dispersion of a set of data.

Range
The range refers to the difference between the highest and the lowest score. It is the easiest and simplest to
determine among the measures of variability because it depends only on the pair of extreme values. However, it
is also the most unstable because its value easily fluctuates with the change in either of the highest or lowest
scores.

Mean Deviation
The average or mean deviation takes into account all the variables in a given distribution. The formula for mean
deviation is:
∑|𝑋− 𝜇|
Ungrouped data MD = 𝑁
Where: X = score of value
𝜇 = mean
N = number of cases

∑ 𝑓|𝑋− 𝜇|
Grouped Data MD = 𝑁
Where: f = frequency
X = score of value
𝜇 = mean
N = number of cases
Variance
The variance is another method would be to square the deviations from the mean. The formula for variance is:

Ungrouped data Variance of a population

∑(𝑋 − 𝜇)2
Ơ2 = 𝑖
𝑁
Variance of a sample
𝑖∑(𝑋 − 𝜇)2
s2 = 𝑛−1
Grouped data Variance of a population
∑ 𝑓(𝑋 − 𝜇)2
Ơ2 = 𝑖
𝑁
Variance of a sample
∑ 𝑓(𝑋𝑖 − 𝜇)2
s2 = 𝑛−1

Standard Deviation
Extracting the square root of the variance yields the standard deviation, which is the most commonly used
measure of dispersion or variability. The formula for standard deviation is:

Ungrouped data Standard deviation of a population

∑(𝑋𝑖 − 𝜇)2
Ơ =√ 𝑁
Standard deviation of a sample
∑(𝑋𝑖 − 𝜇)2
s=√ 𝑛−1
Grouped data Standard deviation of a population
∑ 𝑓(𝑋𝑖 − 𝜇)2
Ơ=√ 𝑁
Standard deviation of a sample
∑ 𝑓(𝑋𝑖 − 𝜇)2
s=√ 𝑛−1
Quartile Deviation
The quartile deviation or the semi-interquartile range provides the spread of half of the range of the middle 50%
of the scores or values in a distribution.
𝑄 −𝑄
QD = 3 2 1
Q3 is the 75% of N and Q1 is the 25% of N.

(75% 𝑜𝑓 𝑁)− 𝑐𝑓𝑞3 (25% 𝑜𝑓 𝑁)− 𝑐𝑓𝑞1

Q3 = 𝐿𝑞3 + i Q1 = 𝐿𝑞1 + i
𝑓𝑖 𝑓𝑖