BHSC230

Research Methods I:
Statistics for Behavioral Science
3 semester credits, Fall 2021

Lecture 3
measures of variation
Instructor : Kelvin Ng
Email : teacherkelvinng@gmail.com
Timetable

Every Wed.

Time : 1:45-4:30pm
Recommended Textbook

• Freund & Perles (2004). Statistics: A first

course, 8th ed., Pearson.
• Coolican, H. (2004). Research Methods in
Statistics in Psychology, 4th ed., Hodder &
Stoughton.
• or any introductory statistics course
• or equivalent
Assessment

• There will be quizzes, exercise and exam

and possibly presentation.
• Generally, you will have quiz for around 3-
4 weeks including mid-term and final
examinations.
• The first would be on Sept/Oct..
• Attendance: (10%)
• The time that attendance is taken during class
several times.
• Whenever the number of absences exceeds
20 percent of the total course
appointments, the instructor may give a
failing grade.
• Don’t come late and leave early. Tardy or
early leave (15 mins) for 3 times equal to
one absent.
• Class participation (10%)
• e.g. answer or ask questions
Class rule

• No computer or phone is needed in this

class.
• All should be turn off.
• Calculator is needed.
Course Outline
1. Probability concepts
2. measure of central tendency
3. measures of variation
4. frequency distributions
5. using frequency distributions
6. point-estimation and confidence intervals
7. sampling distribution
8. levels of significance in hypothesis testing
9. t and z tests, ANOVA
10. chi-square
11. correlation
12. regression
This lecture

•Overview
•Measures of variation
(range and standard deviation)
Measures of variation

• Range
• Standard deviation
Range

• Range is simply the difference between the

maximum value and the minimum one.
• The indication of variability within the data
set.
• It’s simple, quick and easy to check the
variability.
• The greater the range, the greater the
variability.
• e.g. 40, 50, 60, 70, 80; what’s the range?
• Consider the following 2 set of marks in 2
different classes
a) 40, 50, 60, 70, 80
b) 10, 30, 80, 80, 100

• What are the mean of this 2 classes?

• Which set has a greater range?
• If you are the class teacher, which set would
you prefer?
• Consider the pulse rate of two patients at
three different times.

a) 72, 78, 69
b) 49, 81, 102

• They are of similar mean, but of different

range. Which one has larger range?
• If you are a doctor, do you think which patient
needs more care?
• That means range could tell you what mean
cannot. It’s variability.
• Range reflect something about variability,
reliability and also stability.
• However, range cannot tell anything about
the dispersion/distribution of the data set
• because range only tell you the difference
between maximum and minimum value.
• i.e. range cannot tell us the variation
within the maximum and minimum value
Consider the following case

a) 20, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100

b) 20, 20, 20, 100, 100, 100
c) 20, 40, 60, 70, 70, 100

What are their ranges?

• They are having the same range but the
variability within the range is different.
• Thus, another measure is necessary.
Standard deviation (SD)

• Standard deviation – a measure of

deviation from the mean.
• It give us a more complete understanding
about the variation among the data set
than range.
• The greater the SD, the greater the
dispersion within the data set.
Consider the following data set 20, 50, 50, 80.
What is its standard deviation (SD)?

1. Firstly, you need to calculate the mean.

• It’s 50.
2. Deviations from mean for each data point are
30, 0, 0, -30 respectively
• If we sum up them together, the sum is zero
but indeed the variation is not zero.
3. Thus, we need to square each deviation from
mean.
• They are 900, 0 , 0 , 900
4. Sum them up 1800
5. Divide it by number of data and then take
square root.
1800/4 square root = 450 square root =~21
• It’s the standard deviation.
Classwork

Let’s calculate the SD of the following data

set. They are of the same range. Which one
has the greatest SD? Which one has the
smallest SD?
• 20, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100
• 20, 20, 20, 100, 100, 100
• 20, 40, 60, 70, 70, 100
• Please also calculate the SD.
• Check the answer. Normally, all the data
deviate from the mean within 2 SD.
Application 1

• There are 2 brands of light bulb.

• The mean lifetime of both brand A and B
is both 700 hrs. The SD of brand A is 50
hrs while the SD of brand B is 400 hrs.
• Which brand would you choose? Why?
• Which one is more ‘reliable’?
Application 2

• If the height of male is ~168cm while the

height of female is ~ 158cm. Can you
guess the SD of height of each gender?
Justify your answer.
• Provide that some female is taller than
male but most men are taller than women.
Application 3

• If the average IQ is ~100, and SD is 15.

• If your IQ is 130, then what’s your
percentile scores?
• If your IQ is 100, what’s your percentile
scores?
Conclusions

• SD enable you to understand the variation

within the data set
• SD has a wide range of applications in our
daily life.
• SD is much better dispersion measure
than range.
The End of Lecture 3