Question

As a researcher, you collect data on the marital status of your subjects. The appropriate measure of central tendency to use for this variable is:

A. mean
B. median
C. mode
D. standard deviation

Answer 1

The mode is the appropriate measure of central tendency for the categorical data such as marital status since it represents the most frequently occurring category.

Step-by-step explanation:

For the variable of marital status, which is categorical and non-numeric, the appropriate measure of central tendency is the mode. The mode indicates the most frequently occurring category within the data set. The mean and median are not suitable for non-numeric data because they imply a numerical average and a midpoint that does not apply to categorical data like marital status. In contrast, the standard deviation is a measure of the spread of data, not a measure of central tendency, and therefore is not applicable in this context either.