Define standard deviation.

Define standard deviation.

• A. The average distance of each score from the mean
• B. The median of the data
• C. The maximum value
• D. The standard error of the mean

Answer: (A)

Standard deviation measures how spread out the data are around the average value. It is the square root of the average of the squared deviations from the mean, which reflects the typical distance of data points from the mean. Describing it as the average distance of each score from the mean conveys that same idea in a simple way. The median is a center point, not a measure of dispersion. The maximum value just tells you the largest observation, and the standard error of the mean concerns how precisely the sample mean estimates the population mean, not how spread out the data are.

Standard deviation measures how spread out the data are around the average value. It is the square root of the average of the squared deviations from the mean, which reflects the typical distance of data points from the mean. Describing it as the average distance of each score from the mean conveys that same idea in a simple way. The median is a center point, not a measure of dispersion. The maximum value just tells you the largest observation, and the standard error of the mean concerns how precisely the sample mean estimates the population mean, not how spread out the data are.