What is the general term for any measure of the spread or variation in a set of scores?

What is the general term for any measure of the spread or variation in a set of scores?

• A. Descriptive Statistics
• B. Measures of Dispersion
• C. Measures of Central Tendency
• D. Pilot Study

Answer: (B)

Spread or variation in a set of scores is described by dispersion. This general term covers measures like range, variance, and standard deviation that quantify how far scores are from each other or from the center. It sits alongside measures of central tendency (mean, median, mode), which describe the typical value but not how spread out the data are. Descriptive statistics is the broad umbrella that includes both dispersion and central tendency. A pilot study is unrelated here—it’s a preliminary study used to test procedures. So the best answer is measures of dispersion.

Spread or variation in a set of scores is described by dispersion. This general term covers measures like range, variance, and standard deviation that quantify how far scores are from each other or from the center. It sits alongside measures of central tendency (mean, median, mode), which describe the typical value but not how spread out the data are. Descriptive statistics is the broad umbrella that includes both dispersion and central tendency. A pilot study is unrelated here—it’s a preliminary study used to test procedures. So the best answer is measures of dispersion.