Question

First, what are the characteristics of a population for which it would be appropriate to use mean/median/mode? When would the characteristics of a population make them inappropriate to use? Second, using your own experience, what problems have you encountered when you were asked to solve a problem that required gathering and analyzing data? Describe the scenario. What challenges did you face and how did you address the challenges?

Answer 1

A population in which the characteristic of interest is a discrete or continuous quantitative variable with an approximately symmetric and meso-curt distribution is appropriate to use the mean.

A population in which the characteristic of interest is a discrete or continuous quantitative variable with a slightly symmetric distribution or with extreme values ​​is appropriate to use the median.

A population in which the characteristic of interest is a qualitative variable is appropriate to use fashion.

It is not appropriate to use the mean if extreme values ​​are present.

It is not appropriate to use the median if there are several different values ​​with high frequency.

It is not appropriate to wear fashion if the distribution is very skewed asymmetrically.

A frequent problem arises when it is desired to establish the sampling frame, that is, a list of the individuals in the population.

Example: Establish the characteristics of households with children under two years. It was solved by sampling in two phases, identifying in a first phase the sampling frame.

Explanation: