Final answer:
The mode is the measure of center that is the value occurring most frequently in a data set. It is useful when the data includes non-numeric categories or repeated values and is unaffected by outliers, unlike the mean or median.
Step-by-step explanation:
The measure of center that is the value that occurs with the greatest frequency is the mode. The mode is particularly useful in summarizing a data set by identifying the most frequently appearing value or values. Interestingly, a data set may have one mode (unimodal), two modes (bimodal), or more modes. Unlike the mean, which is susceptible to the influence of outliers, the mode represents the actual values that appear in the dataset. Another measure of center is the median, which is the middle value when the data set is ordered from least to greatest. The median is less affected by outliers and extreme values compared to the mean, which is the arithmetic average of all the values in the data set.
When analyzing data from surveys or research, it is common to use measures of central tendency, with the mean, median, and mode each providing different insights into the 'typical' value within the data. In some cases, the mode can be more representative of a set than the mean, especially when the data includes non-numeric categories or when certain responses are repeated more frequently than others. Lastly, in a symmetric distribution, the mean, median, and mode are all equal, indicating a perfect balance in the data set with no skewness.