Page 194 - DSOC404_METHODOLOGY_OF_SOCIAL_RESEARCH_ENGLISH

Methodology of Social Research

note 3. Harmonic mean
4. Quadratic mean
iii. other of Business Averages
1. Moving average
2. Progressive average
from the above given averages we will only discuss those that have a use in the analysis and description
of the facts related to social research.

Arithmetic Average or Mean

According to Ghosh and Chaudhary, ”Arithmetic average which is also called as mean is that result
that is obtained by dividing the sum of values of a variable by its number.”
From the above definition it is clear that arithmetic average is actually finding out the mean which the
students were taught in their lower classes. If we know the value of all units separately then to find
the arithmetic average or mean we need to add them together and divide them with number of units.
the result obtained from this is called as arithmetic average or mean. thus it is clear that arithmetic
average has following characteristics—
a. Arithmetic mean is obtained by dividing the sum of values of a variable by the number of
variables.
b. in this entire elements are used i.e. all elements are given equal importance. Neither element
is neglected or given more importance. An element is counted only once.
c. If we know the value of arithmetic average and elements then we can find out the real value
of sum of elements. Similarly, we can also find out the number of elements.
d. Arithmetic average does not depend upon the frequencies but depends on the value of all
elements.

Method of Calculating Mean

Arithmetic average can be calculated using two techniques—(a) Direct Method and (b) short-cut
method. Now we will discuss the two techniques one by one here.

Calculation of Mean in Simple Series

(a) Direct Method—In this method firstly all the values of elements are added together. Then it is
divided by the number of elements. the result obtained is arithmetic average. it can be demonstrated
by following example.

Example 1 Given below is the description of the height of 10 students. Calculate their
arithmetic average with the help of direct method.

Height (in cms)—155, 153, 168, 160, 162, 166, 164, 180, 157, and 165.
solution: on the basis of above given heights the methodology to calculate arithmetic average by
direct method will be like this:
Sum of heights 6 × ∑x = 155 + 153 + 168 + 160 + 162 + 166 + 164 + 180 + 157+165

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