PSYC 1010 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Normal Distribution, Standard Deviation, Central Tendency

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1010
• Professor: Rebecca Jubis

Document Summary

Doubt big, round, undocumented numbers - precise numbers are more credible. (10 percent homosexual - actually its 4 percent). Mean: average - total sum divided by number of scores (question this because a few atypical scores can distort it. ) Median: middle score when ordered highest to lowest. Range: difference between the highest and the lowest scores in a distribution. Standard deviation: a measure of how much scores vary around the mean score. Looks at each score individually and notices if scores are packed together or dispersed. Normal curve: upside down u curve that describes distribution of the scores. Most scores fall near the mean (middle of curve) and few fall on the two sides of both extremes, hence the curve shape. Average is more reliable with less variable observations than more variable. More cases are better than fewer: poor case: judging a school by 2 teachers.