Measures of Variability

Measures of variability tells us how “good” or “poor” our “best bet”

is as the single value with which to represent an entire distribution.
They do this by indicating how “spread out” or variable the scores are
in a distribution.
Distributions can be either “compressed” (homogeneous or
“expanded” (heterogeneous).
Range
The range is calculated by subtracting the lowest from the highest
score in a distribution.

It is also affected by extreme scores, thus resulting in a misleading

indication of a distribution’s overall variability.

What are the ranges?

0,100,100,100,100,100,100
0, 25, 50, 75, 80, 80, 90, 100
Semi-interquartile range
Unlike the range or SD, the SIQR is not affected by extreme scores.
This is because it is based only on the middle 50% of scores
(extreme scores at either end are left out).
Thus, it is the measure of variability that, in conjunction with the
median, should be used to describe skewed distributions.

It is calculated as:

SIQR = (Q3 - Q1)/2.

Standard Deviation
❧The standard deviation is the most stable measure of variability
since, like the mean, all scores enter into its calculation.

❧The standard deviation is a way of thinking about the average

variability of test scores, just like the mean is a way of thinking about
the average value of the test scores in a distribution.

❧In essence, the standard deviation tells us, on the average, how
distant each score is from the mean of the distribution.
Find Standard Deviation
1. The SD tells us on average how far each score is from the mean.
So, step 1 is to find the mean (mean =4)
3. We need to find how far each individual score is from the
mean. The distance of each score from the mean is called the
DEVIATION SCORE.

X-mean X-M X2
5-4 1 1
6-4 2 4
3-4 -1 1
3-4 -1 1
3-4 -1 1
Find Standard Deviation
3. Now, since we need to find the average distance, we should sum
the deviation scores and divide them by N. But, the sum of the
deviation scores is 0 ( a characteristic of the mean). So, we need to
square each deviation score.
The average of the sum of the deviation scores is called the
VARIANCE.
(X-M)2
N

4. We must return the squared values to units representative of our

original data to get the SD.
The Normal Curve
The normal curve is a special type
of symmetrical distribution that
allows us to make comparisons
among test scores.
Properties of the normal
curve:
2. It is symmetrical (bell-shaped)
distribution.
2. It is asymptotic to the x-axis
( extends to infinity).
3. The curve can be divided into
SD units, and each portion of
the curve contains a fixed Mean
percentage of cases or Mode
observations. Median
(50th percentile)
Normal Curve
68% of the test scores in a normal
distribution fall between 1 SD
above and 1SD below the mean of
the distribution.
95% of the scores fall between 2
SD above and 2 SD below the
mean.
99.9% of the scores fall between 3
SD above and 3SD below the
mean.
Normal Curve
Given these properties, we can
use the normal curve to
determine:
1. The percentage of cases that
fall above or below a particular
score.

2. The percentage of scores

that fall within a given score
interval.
Standard Scores
Raw scores (the number of correct responses on a test are
impossible to interpret in and of themselves. Standard scores
overcome this limitation of raw scores by allowing us to compare
raw scores from distributions with different Ms and SDs.

They do this by converting raw scores from a test into scores that
report where a particular student stands in relation to the M and SD
of the normal curve.

Z- scores tell us the number of SD units a raw score is above or

below the mean of a normal distribution.
Z-scores

(X-M)
Z = SD

The z-score distribution has a

mean of 0 and a SD of 1. Z
score that are positive
indicated that a score is above
the mean. Z scores that are
negative indicate that a score is
below the mean
T-scores: Like Z scores, T scores express performance in terms of
the number of SD units a score is from the mean of the normal
distribution. A T score is a Z score that has been multiplied by 10 (to
get rid of the decimals) and has had a constant of 50 added to it ( to
get rid of the negative numbers).
The T score distribution has a mean of 50 and a SD of 10.
T = 10z + 50

20 30 40 50 60 70 80

-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
STANINES
❧Like T-scores, stanines are derived from Z scores. Stanines
are BANDS or RANGES of scores within which fixed
percentages of scores fall. There are 9 stanines, each being 1/2
a SD in width.
A major advantage of stanines is that since they are intervals or
bands of scores, they minimize over interpretation of scores.
Stanine Percentage of cases Category
1 4% Low
2 7% Low
3 12% Low
4 17% Moderate
5 20% Moderate
6 17% Moderate
7 12% High
8 7% High
9 4% High