Dispersion for Nominal Data: The Variation Ratio

In this video I describe how we can describe dispersion or variability in nominal data by calculating a variation ratio. This is a simple measure of spread that tells us the frequency of scores that differ from the mode, which is the only measure of central tendency that we have for nominal data.

[@rozhinarah]

Thanks for your video. How can 20 out of 20 responses be at the mode? In the previous video, you said if all scores equally frequent, it’s uniform distribution and in this case there’s no mode.

[@PsychExamReview]

If I had a categorical variable like choosing a preferred color; red, blue, yellow, or green, and all 20 participants chose red, and 0 chose any other colors, then "red" would be the mode, with zero variation. This would not be a uniform distribution, in which all responses are equally frequent, which would occur if there were 5 responses for each color, in which case there would not be a mode. Hope this helps!

[@juntakumi16]

HI MR CORAYER

[@PsychExamReview]

Hi!