At ACME Co.

, we want to get some customer

feedback on our portable hole. We devised a
Likert question to ask participants to rate the
portable hole on ve aspects! "i#e, $rice, %eliabilit&,
$ortabilit&, and 'urabilit&. We(ve used a t&pical ve)
point Likert rating scale for the question. We(ve
asked participants to rate whether or not the& were
ver& unsatised, unsatised, neither satised nor
dissatised, satised, or ver& satised with each
qualit& we want to collect feedback on. We(ve left the
default Likert weighting scale intact, though &ou can
enter &our own weightings as &ou see t!
Checking the results, here(s what we see. *ot shown
here is an important fact! we(ve got11 total
responses to our surve& so far!
*ote that "i#e(s weighted average score is +.+,.
-ere(s how we arrive at that score!
.*umber of votes / Weighting for column 01 2
.*umber of votes / Weighting for column 31 2
*umber of votes / Weighting for Column +1 2
.*umber of votes / Weighting for column 41 2
.*umber of votes / Weighting for column 51 6 7otal
*umber of 8otes
-ere(s the equation for "i#e!
.3 / 01 2 .0 / 31 2 .3 / +1 2 .+ / 41 2 .+ / 51 6 00
3 2 3 2 , 2 03 2 05 6 00
+9 6 00 : +.+,
;verall, we can see that of the ve qualities,
'urabilit& rated most highl&, with an average
weighted score of 4.
<ou can get started measuring success at &our
school, workplace, o=ce, or organi#ation b&creating
a free account, and making &our own surve&, toda&.
7he Mean and the Median
7he di>erence between the mean and median can be
illustrated with an e?ample. "uppose we draw a
sample of ve women and measure their weights.
7he& weigh 0@@ pounds, 0@@ pounds, 0+@ pounds,
04@ pounds, and 05@ pounds.
7o nd the median, we arrange the observations in
order from smallest to largest value. Af there is an
odd number of observations, the median is the
middle value. Af there is an even number of
observations, the median is the average of the two
middle values. 7hus, in the sample of ve women,
the median value would be 0+@ poundsB since 0+@
pounds is the middle weight.
7he mean of a sample or a population is computed
b& adding all of the observations and dividing b& the
number of observations. %eturning to the e?ample of
the ve women, the mean weight would equal .0@@
2 0@@ 2 0+@ 2 04@ 2 05@165 : ,3@65 : 034 pounds.
An the general case, the mean can be calculated,
using one of the following equations!
$opulation mean : C : DE 6 * ;% "ample mean
: ? : D? 6 n
where DE is the sum of all the population
observations, * is the number of population
observations, D? is the sum of all the sample
observations, and n is the number of sample
observations.
When statisticians talk about the mean of a
population, the& use the Freek letter C to refer to the
mean score. When the& talk about the mean of a
sample, statisticians use the s&mbol ? to refer to the
mean score.
7he Mean vs. the Median
As measures of central tendenc&, the mean and the
median each have advantages and disadvantages.
"ome pros and cons of each measure are
summari#ed below.
7he median ma& be a better indicator of the most
t&pical value if a set of scores has an outlier. An
outlier is an e?treme value that di>ers greatl& from
other values.
-owever, when the sample si#e is large and does not
include outliers, the mean score usuall& provides a
better measure of central tendenc&.
7o illustrate these points, consider the following
e?ample. "uppose we e?amine a sample of 0@
households to estimate the t&pical famil& income.
*ine of the households have incomes between
G3@,@@@ and G0@@,@@@B but the tenth household has
an annual income of G0,@@@,@@@,@@@. 7hat tenth
household is an outlier. Af we choose a measure to
estimate the income of a t&pical household, the
mean will greatl& over)estimate the income of a
t&pical famil& .because of the outlier1B while the
median will not.
E>ect of Changing Hnits
"ometimes, researchers change units .minutes to
hours, feet to meters, etc.1. -ere is how measures of
central tendenc& are a>ected when we change units.
Af &ou add a constant to ever& value, the mean and
median increase b& the same constant. Ior e?ample,
suppose &ou have a set of scores with a mean equal
to 5 and a median equal to ,. Af &ou add 0@ to ever&
score, the new mean will be 5 2 0@ : 05B and the
new median will be , 2 0@ : 0,.
"uppose &ou multipl& ever& value b& a constant.
7hen, the mean and the median will also be
multiplied b& that constant. Ior e?ample, assume
that a set of scores has a mean of 5 and a median of
,. Af &ou multipl& each of these scores b& 0@, the new
mean will be 5 / 0@ : 5@B and the new median will be
, / 0@ : ,@.
7est <our Hnderstanding of 7his Lesson