Question 1

The mean is defined as:&#10;A) The balancing point in a distribution of scores.&#10;B) The middle point in a distribution of scores.&#10;C) The most frequently occurring score in a distribution.&#10;D) None of the above.

Accepted Answer

The mean is the balancing point in a distribution of scores, which is the value that would be obtained if all of the scores were added up and divided by the total number of scores.

Question 2

The mode is defined as:&#10;A) The balancing point in a distribution of scores.&#10;B) The middle point in a distribution of scores.&#10;C) The most frequently occurring score in a distribution.&#10;D) None of the above.

Accepted Answer

The mode is the score that appears most frequently in a distribution.

Question 3

Use the mean when the following condition(s) is/are met:&#10;A) The distribution of scores is not highly skewed.&#10;B) The scores are at the ordinal level of measurement.&#10;C) The scores are at the scale level of measurement.&#10;D) Both A and C.

Accepted Answer

When the distribution of scores is not highly skewed and the scores are at the scale level of measurement, the mean is the best choice for a measure of central tendency. The mean is not appropriate for ordinal data as it assumes equal intervals between scores, which may not be the case.

Question 4

When would you need to use the median instead of the mean?&#10;A) The distribution of scores is not highly skewed.&#10;B) The scores are at the ordinal level of measurement.&#10;C) The scores are at the scale level of measurement.&#10;D) Both A and C.

Accepted Answer

The median is more appropriate than the mean when dealing with ordinal data because ordinal data represents categories with a meaningful order but without a consistent scale between categories, making the calculation of a mean (which requires numerical values that can be meaningfully averaged) inappropriate.

Question 5

Use the median when the following condition(s) is/are met:&#10;A) The distribution of scores is highly skewed.&#10;B) The scores are at the ordinal level of measurement.&#10;C) The scores are at the scale level of measurement.&#10;D) Both A and B

Accepted Answer

The median is the best choice when the distribution of scores is highly skewed, as it is a more robust measure than the mean in such cases. It is also the best choice when dealing with ordinal level data, as it takes into account the order of the scores and is not affected by outliers. Thus, both A and B are correct. However, the median can also be used with scale-level data, but the mean may be a better choice in such cases as it takes into account the specific values of the scores. Therefore, C is not the best choice.

Question 6

The median is the most frequently used measure of central tendency used in published research.

Accepted Answer

The statement is false. The most frequently used measure of central tendency in published research is the mean, not the median. However, the median is often used as a secondary measure to complement the mean.

Question 7

Each row in SPSS Statistics represents a participant.

Accepted Answer

Each row in SPSS Statistics represents a case, which in research terminology refers to a participant, subject, or instance being studied.

Question 8

In SPSS Statistics once you move your cursor to &#34;Descriptive Statistics,&#34; click on &#34;Investigate&#8230;&#34; to get the mean and median.

Accepted Answer

In SPSS Statistics, to get the mean and median, you typically go to "Analyze" > "Descriptive Statistics" > "Frequencies" or "Descriptives," not "Investigate…". "Investigate…" is not a standard option for accessing descriptive statistics such as mean and median in SPSS.

Question 9

There can only be one mode in a distribution.

Accepted Answer

It is possible to have multiple modes in a distribution if there are multiple values with the same highest frequency.

Question 10

The median is appropriate for highly skewed data.

Accepted Answer

The median is less influenced by extreme values and is more appropriate to represent highly skewed data than the mean.

Deck 6: Mean, Median, and Mode: One Group, Two Scale Variables