0.6 Vocab; Data Interpretation

Quantitative

data that is in numbers

Qualitative

data in the form of words

Central Tendency

a measure that represents the typical response or the behavior of a group as a whole; mean, median, mode 

mean 

the arithmetic average of a distribution, obtained by adding the scores and then dividing the number of scores 

median 

the middle score in distribution; half the scores are above it and half are below it 

mode

the most frequently occurring score(s) in a distribution

measures of variation

a measure used to describe the distribution of data; range and standard deviation

normal distribution

a bell - shaped curve, describing the spread of a characteristic throughout a population

bimodal distribution

a frequency distribution having two different values that are heavily populated with cases 

likert scale

a numerical scale used to assess attitudes; includes a set of possible answers with labeled anchors on each extreme 

positive skew

a curve or distribution of scores that has extreme scores above the mean that are atypical of the majority of scores 

negative skew

a curve or distribution of scores that has extreme scores below the mean that are atypical of the majority of scores

structured interviews

interviews in which all applicants are asked the same set of standardized questions, usually including situational, behavioral, background, and job - knowledge questions

statistical significance

a statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance

percentile

a point on a ranking scale of 0 to 100, the 50th percentile is the midpoint; half of the people in the population being studied rank higher and half rank lower 

regression to the mean 

if the first measurement is extreme, the second measurement will be closer to the mean