SKEWNESS and KURTOSIS

RENA V. INONCILLO
PhD-ELM
SKEWNESS
Skewness (sk)
is the measure of deviation from symmetry.

Frequency distribution is skewed to the right (or positively skewed ) if

it extends farther to the right of the mode than it does to the left.

Frequency distribution is skewed to the left (or negatively skewed ) if

it extends farther to the left of the mode than it does to the right.
Positive (Right) Skewness Example

A scientist has 1,000 people complete some psychological tests. For test 5, the test scores
have skewness = 2.0. A histogram of these scores is shown below.
Negative (Left) Skewness Example
Another variable -the scores on test 2- turn out to have skewness = -1.0. Their histogram is shown below.
Symmetrical Distribution Implies Zero Skewness

Finally, symmetrical distributions have skewness = 0. The scores on test 3 -having skewness = 0.1- come close.
 For a perfectly symmetrical distribution the value of Sk is equal to
0, and in general its value must fall between -3 and 3.

 If the value of Sk>0 then the frequency polygon is skewed to the

right.

 If the value of Sk<0 then the frequency polygon is skewed left.

Formula:
Example:
In the Achievement Test Results of Experimental and Control Group , the following values were
calculated.

Experimental Control
Mean 72.125 62.125
Median 71.95 59.94
Standard Deviation 4.23 9.86
Skewness 0.124 0.6648

Interpretation:

Both data indicates positive skewness which means that the scores of both
groups of student respondents tend to be low. However, the skewness value of
the experimental group is lower than the control group. This implies that the
score of experimental group are more spread than the control group.
Measures
of
Kurtosis
KURTOSIS- is a measure of a distribution’s peakedness / flatness in relation to another

TYPES:

Leptokurtic – distributions where cluster heavily or pile up in the center.

Mesokurtic – are immediate distributions which are neither too peaked nor too flat.
The values are immediately distributed about the center.

Platykurtic- flat distributions with values are more evenly distributed about the center with
broad humps and tail.
Where :
x = midpoint
xx̄
̄= sample mean

n = population size
s = Standard deviation
Where :
f = frequency
x = midpoint
xx̄
̄= sample mean

n = population size
s = Standard deviation
Example:
Using the verbal ability of the incoming Grade 7 students, find the Kurtosis
Frequency Midpoint f( x - x̄ ) 4
Score ( x - x̄ ) ( x - x̄ ) 4
(f) (x)

46-50 6 (46+50/2) 48 (48-29.74)18.26 ( 18.26) 4 111,173.96 6(111,173.96) 667,043.79

32-45 18 38.5 8.76 5,888.66 105.995.87
25-31 12 28 -1.74 9.17 110.04
11-24 8 17.5 -12.24 2,445.31 179,562.51
0-10 6 5 -24.74 374,626.75 2,247,760.50
n = 50
f( x - x̄ ) 4 =3,200,472.70

Mean = 29.74 SD= 13.00

Kurtosis = 3,200,472.7 = 3,200,472.7

50(13) 4 50(28,561)

Kurtosis = 2.24 (platykurtic)

Interpretation:

The kurtosis value of 2.24 is less than 3.0 therefore the

score distribution is platykurtic. It means that the number
of students is slightly distributed among the score intervals.
Do not let one negative carry the
same weight as
ninety-nine positives.
Thank You!