In descriptive statistics, measures of central tendency are a phenomenon that gives insights into the scores on a specific group of data on which they cluster. Literary, for someone interacting with a distribution of data sets, these measures answer the question of where the center is. It gives one predictive capability, allowing the drawing of generalized conclusions concerning a data set (Chakraborti, 2017). The measure of central tendency addresses distribution shapes of a set which manifest in diverse forms and extents. Considering this, the regularly used measures of central tendency include median, mean, and mode.
The mode is regarded as the most repeatedly occurring class or number in a spread of scores. Any level of measurement can implement the model and does not require mathematical computation for deductions. However, the model is the only measure of central tendency compatible with manipulating nominal data (Brase & Brase, 2016). The mode may be applied with continuous variables allowing one to focus on the most common value rather than seeking frequent occurrences in nominal and ordinal data sets.
The median is defined as the value that divides a data set precisely into two halves, so that half of the data is above, while the other half is below it. Therefore, it is applied with continuous and ordinal data (Brase & Brase, 2016). However, it cannot be applied with nominal data since the variable under analysis needs to be ranked orderable whereas nominal variables cannot be ranked orderable (Brase & Brase, 2016). The mean is the average of a data set, implying that, in calculating the mean, each element in the data set has an independent impact on the mean value. However, it is possible to calculate the mean with continuous data; however, it cannot describe categorical data.
Generally, the measures of central tendency give a broader chance in creating statistical inferencing methods and theories in the pursuit of achieving perfection in statistical mathematics. The most used measures of central tendency include mode, mean, and median. The mode is the only measure of central tendency that can be applied in manipulating nominal data. Literary, the distribution of data sets and measures of central tendency help one determine the middle.
References
Brase, C. H., & Brase, C. P. (2016). Understanding basic statistics, enhanced (7th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Chakraborti, S. (2017). Measures of central tendency. In CMM Subject support strand: STATISTICS (Unit 1). Web.