Measures of Dispersion

Unit 1 Part 3
1
Definition
Measures of dispersion are descriptive
statistics that describe how similar a set of
scores are to each other
The more similar the scores are to each other, the
lower the measure of dispersion will be
The less similar the scores are to each other, the
higher the measure of dispersion will be
In general, the more spread out a distribution is,
the larger the measure of dispersion will be
2
Measures of Dispersion
Which of the
distributions of scores
has the larger
dispersion?
0
25
50
75
100
125
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
0
25
50
75
100
125
1 3 5 7 9
3
The upper distribution
has more dispersion
because the scores are
more spread out
That is, they are less
similar to each other
Measures of Dispersion
The range
Quartile Deviation
Mean Deviation,
Standard Deviation,
Relative Dispersion:
Coefficient of Variance.
4
The Range
The range is defined as the difference
between the largest score in the set of data
and the smallest score in the set of data What
is the range of the following data:
4 8 1 6 6 2 9 3 6 9
The largest score (X
L
) is 9
the smallest score (X
S
) is 1;
the range is X
L
- X
S
= 9 - 1 = 8
5
When To Use the Range
The range is used when you have ordinal data
or you are presenting your results to people
with little or no knowledge of statistics
The range is rarely used in scientific work as it
is fairly insensitive
It depends on only two scores in the set of
data, X
L
and X
S

Two very different sets of data can have the same
range:
1 1 1 1 9 vs 1 3 5 7 9
6
Quartile Deviation (The Semi-Inter
quartile Range)
Quartile Deviation or The semi inter-quartile
range (or SIR) is defined as the difference of
the first and third quartiles divided by two
The first quartile is the 25
th
percentile
The third quartile is the 75
th
percentile
7
2
2 3 Q Q
Q

=

8
Example
9
Quartile Deviation Example
What is the Q D for the
data to the right?
25 % of the scores are
below 5
5 is the first quartile
25 % of the scores are
above 25
25 is the third quartile
SIR = (Q
3
- Q
1
) / 2 = (25 -
5) / 2 = 10
2
4
6
5 = 25
th
%tile
8
10
12
14
20
30
25 = 75
th
%tile
60
10
When To Use the Quartile Deviation
The Quartile Deviation
is often used with skewed data as it is
insensitive to the extreme scores
11
Mean deviation
Also known as average deviation
It is the average difference between the
individual items in the group and the mean or
median of the group
It is better to take deviations from the median
since it is the minimum when signs are
ignored.
In practice, arithmetic mean is widely used.
12
Formula: Calculate Mean deviation
: Individual observation
If X
1
, X
2
, Xn are individual observations, then
Mean deviation is


13

= A X
n
D M
1
.
Steps
1.Calculate the Arithmetic mean of the series
Calculate deviation from each element in the
group (X-AM)
Take total ignoring the signs
Divide the total by number of element
/observations
14
example
Calculate the mean deviation from the income
group given below
Income in Rs.:
4000,4200,4400,4600,4800,5800
15
Merits and Limitations
Merits
Simple to understand
Easy to compute
Based on all items of the
data
Less affected by the
extreme values as
compared to variance
Easy for comparison with
other groups
Limitations
Ignoring + or signs
So not capable of further
algebraic treatment
Rarely used in social studies

16
Mean deviation (discreet series)
17

= A X f
n
D M
1
.
D f
n
D M
1
. =
or
EXAMPLE

18
Variance
Variance is defined as the average of the
square deviations:
19
( )
N
X
2
2


= o
What Does the Variance Formula
Mean?
First, it says to subtract the mean from each of
the scores
This difference is called a deviate or a deviation
score
The deviate tells us how far a given score is from
the typical, or average, score
Thus, the deviate is a measure of dispersion for a
given score
20
What Does the Variance Formula
Mean?
Can we simply take the average of the
deviates?
21
This is not the
formula for
variance!
( )
N
X

=

o
2
Why?
NO!!!!!
What Does the Variance Formula
Mean?
the sum of the (Scores minus the Mean) always
equals to 0
The values above the mean and values below the
mean are exactly equal
Thus, the average of the deviates must be 0 since
the sum of the deviates must equal 0
To avoid this problem, statisticians square the
deviate score prior to averaging them
Squaring the deviate score makes all the squared
scores positive
22
What Does the Variance Formula
Mean?
Variance is the mean of the squared deviation
scores
The larger the variance is, the more is
deviation from the mean on an average
The smaller the variance is, the less the scores
deviate, on average, from the mean
23
Standard Deviation
When the deviate scores are squared in
variance, their unit of measure is squared as well
E.g. If peoples weights are measured in pounds,
then the variance of the weights would be expressed
in pounds
2
(or squared pounds)
Since squared units of measure are often
awkward to deal with, the square root of
variance is often used instead
The standard deviation is the square root of
variance
24
Standard Deviation
Standard deviation = \variance
Variance = standard deviation
2

25
Formula of
The formula of standard deviation



The formula of standard deviation can also be
expressed as
26
( )
N
X

2
( )
N
N
X
X

=
2
2
2
o
o
2
Example
X X
2
X- (X-)
2
9 81 2 4
8 64 1 1
6 36 -1 1
5 25 -2 4
8 64 1 1
6 36 -1 1
E = 42 E = 306 E = 0 E = 12
27
Computational Formula Example
( )
2
6
12
6
294 306
6
6
306
N
N
42
X
X
2
2
2
2
=
=

o
( )
2
6
12
2
2
=
=
=

N
X
o
28
Relative dispersion
Coefficient of variance
29
Coefficient of Variance
Standard deviation is an absolute measure of
dispersion
The corresponding relative measure is
Coefficient of Variance
Developed by Karl Pearson
Useful in comparing the variability of two or
more series
Lesser the coefficient, lesser is the variability



30
Formula
31
100 .
X
V C
o
=
Co-efficient variation =(standard deviation
divided by arithmetic Mean) * 100
Example
Prob. 1
X = 15, 10, 7, 5, 3,2
Y=20, 12, 7, 4, 2, 1Prob. 1


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