Test Bank For Statistics for Criminology and Criminal Justice 4th Edition

Chapter 4: Measures of Central Tendency Test Bank

1. The mode is defined as:
a. the mathematical average.
b. the middle score of a distribution that splits it into two equal halves.
*c. the most frequently occurring score in a distribution.
d. the average of all the midpoints in a distribution.
@ Answer Location: The Mode; Cognitive Domain: Knowledge; Question Type: MC

2. For the following data, which is the mode?
1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6

a. 1
*b. 3
c. 4
d. 5
@ Answer Location: The Mode; Cognitive Domain: Analysis; Question Type: MC

3. For the following data, which is the mode? Score Frequency
1 10
2 15

3            12
4            12
5            15
6            17

a. 2
b. 3
c. 5
*d. 6
@ Answer Location: The Mode; Cognitive Domain: Analysis; Question Type: MC

4. Which measure of central tendency is best used for categorical variables? *a. Mode
b. Median
c. Mean

d. Bimodal distribution
@ Answer Location: The Mode; Cognitive Domain: Application; Question Type: MC

5. The median is:
a. the most frequently occurring score in a distribution.
b. the average of all scores in a distribution.
*c. the score that is in the exact middle of the distribution.
d. the mathematical average .
@ Answer Location: The Median; Cognitive Domain: Knowledge; Question Type: MC

6. For the following set of numbers, what is the median? 2, 3, 5, 4, 7, 3, 3, 6, 4, 8, 2, 3, 5, 4

a. 3 b. 3.5 *c. 4 d. 4.5

@ Answer Location: The Median; Cognitive Domain: Application; Question Type: MC

Bachman & Paternoster, Statistics for Criminology & Criminal Justice 4th Edition Instructor Resource

7. Given the following grouped distribution, what would the median be? Number of Drinks f

1-5 2 6-10 7 11-15 8 16–20 3 Total N 20

a. 11 – 15 b. 13
*c. 11.63 d. 15

@ Answer Location: The Median for Grouped Data; Cognitive Domain: Analysis; Question Type: MC

8. The mean can be defined as:
*a. the mathematical average of the distribution.
b. the score that falls in the middle of the distribution.
c. the most frequently occurring score.
d. the average of all the midpoints in a distribution.
@Answer Location: The Mean; Cognitive Domain: Knowledge; Question Type: MC

9. What is the mean for the following distribution? 32, 34, 45, 53, 62, 44, 36, 61, 55, 47, 39, 50

a. 46
*b. 46.5
c. 50
d. 52.5
@ Answer Location: The Shape of a Distribution; Cognitive Domain: Application; Question Type: MC

10. Given the following grouped distribution, what would the median be? Number of Drinks f

1-5 2 6-10 7 11-15 8 16–20 3 Total N 20

a. 15
b. 13
c. 10
*d. 11
@Answer Location: The Mean for Grouped Data; Cognitive Domain: Analysis; Question Type: MC

11. A distribution that had two modes would be considered bimodal?
*a. True
b. False
@ Answer Location: The Mode; Cognitive Domain Knowledge; Question Type: TF

12. The mode is the most useful measure of central tendency for ordinal level measures? a. True
*b. False
@ Answer Location: The Mode; Cognitive Domain: Comprehension; Question Type: TF

13. The mode may give a misleading notion of the central tendency of the data. *a. True

Bachman & Paternoster, Statistics for Criminology & Criminal Justice 4th Edition Instructor Resource

b. False
@ Answer Location: Advantages and Disadvantages of the Mode; Cognitive Domain: Comprehension; Question Type: TF

14. The median can be used when analyzing nominal, ordinal, and interval level variables. a. True
*b. False
@ Answer Location: The Median; Cognitive Domain: Comprehension; Question Type: TF

15. The median is calculated by adding 1 to the total number of cases and dividing by 2. a. True
*b. False
@ Answer Location: The Median; Cognitive Domain: Comprehension; Question Type: TF

16. Unlike the mean, the median is not influenced by extreme scores, either low or high.
*a. True
b. False
@ Answer Location: Advantages and Disadvantages of the Median; Cognitive Domain: Knowledge; Question Type: TF

17. The mean is calculated by summing up all of the scores for a particular variable and then dividing by the number of cases.
*a. True
b. False

@ Answer Location: The Mean; Cognitive Domain: Comprehension; Question Type: TF

18. The mean can be calculated for all levels of measurement.
a. True
*b. False
@ Answer Location: The Mean; Cognitive Domain: Comprehension; Question Type: TF

19. One advantage of the mean is that it is not influenced easily by outliers in the data.
a. True
*b. False
@ Answer Location: Advantages and Disadvantages of the Mean; Cognitive Domain: Knowledge; Question Type: TF

20. In a normal distribution the mode, median, and mean will all be the same.
*a. True
b. False
@ Answer Location: Advantages and Disadvantages of the Mean; Cognitive Domain: Comprehension; Question Type: TF

21. What is the mode, median, and mean? What levels of measurement are they most useful for *a. Answers may vary

The mode is one measure of central tendency. The mode conceptualizes “central tendency” in terms of what is the most likely, most common, or most frequent score in a distribution of scores. Another way to think of the mode is to note that it is the score or value that has the highest probability of occurring. The mode can be calculated with data measured at the nominal, ordinal, or interval/ratio level. However, if you have nominal- or purely ordinal-level data (purely ordinal in the sense that the data are not continuous data that you have made ordinal by making class intervals or grouping your data), then the mode is the only appropriate measure of central tendency that you may legitimately use.

The median is an appropriate measure of central tendency for quantitative data measured at the interval/ratio level or for data that may have originally been measured at the interval/ratio level but now

Bachman & Paternoster, Statistics for Criminology & Criminal Justice 4th Edition Instructor Resource

consist of grouped data (class intervals for grouped frequency distributions that have real limits). The easiest way to think of the median is that it is the value that is at the 50th percentile in a rank-ordered distribution of scores. The median score, in other words, is the score in the exact middle of a rank- ordered distribution of quantitative scores such that the median is the point above which one-half of the scores are and below which the other one-half of the scores fall.

The mean is defined as the arithmetic average of a group of scores and is calculated by summing all of the scores and then dividing by the total number of scores. The mean requires that the data be measured at the interval/ratio level.

@Answer Location: The Mode, The Median, The Mean; Cognitive Domain: Comprehension; Question Type: SA

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