Which measures are used to describe how spread out the values in a data set are?

The correct answer identifies measures of dispersion as the key concept used to describe how spread out the values in a data set are. Measures of dispersion provide insights into the variability or spread of the data, indicating how much the individual data points differ from the central value, such as the mean or median. Common measures of dispersion include the range, variance, and standard deviation, which quantify the extent to which data points are distributed around a central value.

Understanding dispersion is crucial because it helps researchers and analysts gauge the consistency of data, identify outliers, and make comparisons between different data sets. For example, a low standard deviation relative to the mean suggests that the data points are clustered closely around the central value, whereas a high standard deviation indicates a wider spread of values.

In contrast, measures of central tendency focus specifically on identifying the center or typical values in the data, qualitative measures deal with non-numeric variables, and while descriptive statistics encompass both measures of central tendency and dispersion, they do not solely address the spread of values. Measures specifically dedicated to dispersion provide the necessary details to analyze the variability inherent in data sets.