Explain what each of the three most widely used measures of central tendency indicate to a psychological researcher.
Measures of central tendency are all know generally as "averages."
I. Mean is calculated as mean = ∑X/N. The mean is the fulcrum (balance point) for the distribution; therefore it is most influenced by deviant scores.
II. Median is the point of the distribution in which 50% of scores are valued higher, and 50% are valued lower (To remember, median usually splits highway in half).
III. Mode is the most frequently occurring score (To remember, "pie a la mode" is the most frequent way of having pie with something on it).