Descriptive Statistics: Measures of Dispersion Presented by Dr. Mohammad Alsadi

Descriptive Statistics
Measures of Dispersion
Presented by
Dr. Mohammad Alsadi
1
Descriptive Stats
• The first step in any data analysis is to
understand/describe the values of the variables.
• Specifically, it is important to know four
descriptive measures of each variable:
1. Measures of central tendency.
2. Measures of dispersion.
3. Presence of outliers.
4. Shape of distribution.
2
Measures of Dispersion
Which of the distributions 125
of scores has the larger 100

75
?dispersion 50
25
0
 The upper distribution

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
has more dispersion

because the scores are
more spread out
125
100
75
That is, they are less 50

25
similar to each other

0
1 3 5 7 9
Measures of Dispersion .2
• The measures of dispersion describe the
extent to which the values of the variable are
spread out around the measure of central
tendency.
Measures of dispersion.
1.Range
2.Interquartile range
3.The Variance/standard deviation
4
Example: This figure shows the frequency
polygons for two populations that have
equal means but different amounts of
variability. Population B, which is more
variable than population A, is more spread
out. If the values are widely scattered, the
dispersion is greater
Descriptive Statistics – Measures of Dispersion
• Dispersion: conveys information regarding the

amount of variability present in a set of data.
1. If all the values are the same
→ There is no dispersion .
2. If all the values are different
→ There is a dispersion:
3.If the values close to each other
→The amount of Dispersion small.
4. If the values are widely scattered
→ The Dispersion is greater.
6
Range
• The range is simply defined as the difference between

the highest and lowest value in a dataset.
• Range =Largest value- Smallest value =

xL  xS
• Note: Range concern only into two values
• The usefulness of the range is limited.
• The main advantage in using the range is the simplicity
of its computation.
7
Examples
Example: find the value of range for the following
data. 7, 9, 6, 8, 11, 10, 4
• Solution: XL=11, XS = 4.
• Range = XL – XS
= 11- 4 = 7
Example: 43,66,61,64,65,38,59,57,57,50.
• Range=66-38=28
8
Range
Class A--IQs of 13 Students Class B--IQs of 13 Students

102 115 127 162
128 109 131 103
131 89 96 111
98 106 80 109
140 119 93 87
93 97 120 105
110 109
Class A Range = 140 - 89 = 51 Class B Range = 162 - 80 = 82
Methods to calculate the range in case of
frequency distribution
Method:
• L = Upper boundary of the highest class
• S = Lower boundary of the lowest class.
10
Example
• Calculate range from the following distribution.
• Size: 60-63 63-66 66-69 69-72 72-75

• Freq: 5 18 42 27 8
• Solution: L = Upper boundary of the highest class =
75, S= Lower boundary of the lowest class = 60
• Range = L – S = 75 – 60 = 15
11
Variance
A measure of the spread of the values on a variable. A measure of dispersion.
The larger the variance, the further the individual cases are from the mean.
Mean
The smaller the variance, the closer the individual scores are to the mean.
Mean
Variance
• The variance is computed as the average
squared deviation of each number from its
mean.
• For example, for the numbers 1, 2, and 3, the
mean is 2 and the variance is:
2  X   2
 
N
13
Standard Deviation
• The standard deviation shows the average

absolute distance of each point from the mean.
The larger the number, the more widely
scattered about the mean are the individual
values of the variable.
• Square of standard deviation is called Variance.
14
Standard Deviation
• The standard deviation is obtained by first
computing the variance (the sum of the
squared deviations about the mean) and then
taking the square root of the variance.
• For the previous example, the standard
deviation is the square root for 0.667
15
Interquartile Range
A quartile is the value that marks one of the divisions
that breaks a series of values into four equal parts.
- 25th percentile is a quartile that divides the first ¼ of cases from the latter
¾.
- 75th percentile is a quartile that divides the first ¾ of cases from the latter
¼.
The interquartile range is the distance or range between the 25th percentile
and the 75th percentile.
25% 25% 25%

25%
of of
cases cases
0 250 500 750 1000

Interquartile Range
Find the IQR of the following data set?
3 5 5 7 8 8 9 10 13 13 14 15 16 22 23
Median= 10
It is = 8 How ?
17
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Descriptive Statistics

of scores has the larger 100

 The upper distribution

has more dispersion

That is, they are less 50

similar to each other

• Dispersion: conveys information regarding the

• The range is simply defined as the difference between

• Range =Largest value- Smallest value =

Class A--IQs of 13 Students Class B--IQs of 13 Students

• Size: 60-63 63-66 66-69 69-72 72-75

• The standard deviation shows the average

25% 25% 25%

0 250 500 750 1000

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