Organizing and Interpreting Data
Statistics aid us in our everyday lives. What they do is organize, summarize, and make inferences from data we
or psychologists collect. Statistical principles allow us or psychologists to evaluate the large undocumented
numbers that often misread reality and mislead the general public. One method of organization is to convert the
statistical information into a bar graph.
The three measures of central tendency are the mode (most frequently occurring score in a distribution), the
mean (the arithmetic average of a distribution), and the median (the middle score in a distribution). The range
of scores is the gap between the lowest and highest scores, and it provides a rough estimate of variation. The
standard deviation deals with the distribution of data. In other words, it is the more standard measure of how
scores or data deviate from one another. On a graph it would be a bell-shaped curve.
In this assignment, you will organize the data into a bar graph and determine the three measures of central
tendency and the two measures of variation.
Presidents’ Ages at the Time of Inauguration
President
Age President Age President
Age
Washington 57 Lincoln
52 Hoover
54
J. Adams
61 A. Johnson 56 F. D. Roosevelt 51
Jefferson
57 Grant
46 Truman
60
Madison
57 Hayes
54 Eisenhower
61
Monroe
58 Garfield
49 Kennedy
43
J. Q. Adams 57 Arthur
51 L. Johnson
55
Jackson
51 Cleveland 47 Nixon
56
Van Buren
64 B. Harrison 55 Ford
61
W. H. Harrison 68 Cleveland 55 Carter
52
Tyler
51 McKinley 54 Reagan
69
Polk
49 T. Roosevelt 42 Bush
64
Taylor
64 Taft
51 Clinton
46
Fillmore
50 Wilson
56 G. W. Bush
54
Pierce
48 Harding
55 Obama
47
Buchanan
65 Coolidge
51
Moore, D. S. (1995).The basic practice of statistics. New York: Freeman.
How to do it:
1.
Display the above data in a bar graph, placing age at inauguration on the vertical axis and the total
number of presidents at each age on the horizontal axis. (Hint: Use bars with intervals of five years each,
beginning with 40–45 years and ending with 65–70. Use numbers from 0 to 16 on the horizontal axis.)
2. Calculate the mean, median, and mode for the presidents’ ages.
3. Calculate the variance and standard deviation of the presidents’ ages.
4. Print your work out to be handed in for a grade (100 points on Alternate assessment area)