Which of the following is a measure of central tendency?
Answer Details
The measure of central tendency refers to a statistical measure that identifies a single value as representative of an entire distribution of data. Its goal is to provide an accurate description of the entire data set with a single score. The most common measures of central tendency are mean, median, and mode.
Among the options provided:
Standard deviation: This is a measure of dispersion or spread within a data set. It indicates how much individual data points deviate from the mean.
Range: This is also a measure of dispersion, calculated as the difference between the maximum and minimum values in the data set.
Variance: Similar to standard deviation, variance is a measure of how much the data points are spread out around the mean, but it represents the average of the squared deviations from the mean.
Mean: This is the average of a data set, calculated by adding up all the values and dividing by the number of values. It is a widely used measure of central tendency.
Therefore, the mean is a measure of central tendency because it provides a central value of the data set around which the individual data points are distributed.