MODE

MEANING

Mode is a positional measure of central tendency.  It is that value which occurs most frequently in any distribution. That means the items which are repeated a maximum time in the given distribution is known as mode. It is generally denoted by ‘Z’.

ACCORDING TO CROXTON AND COWDEN

“The mode of a distribution is the value at the point around which the items tend to be most heavily concentrated. It may be regarded as the most typical of a series of values.”

ACCORDING TO ZIZEK

“It is the value occurring most frequently in a series of items and around which the other items are distributed most densely.”

ACCORDING TO A.M. TUTTLE

“Mode is the value which has the greatest frequency or density in its immediate neighborhood.”

Thus, mode is that value of the variable around which there is highest concentration of values.

MERITS OF MODE

SIMPLE TO CALCULATE AND UNDERSTAND: It is the simplest measure of central tendency. It can be found out by inspection also as it is the value that occurs maximum time in the series.

SCIENTIFIC AND COMMERCIAL USE: It has its importance in the scientific and commercial fields in particular. It is highly useful where we are concerned with the production of items depending upon its size such as shoes, shirts etc.

GREATER CHANCE IN SAMPLE SELECTION: It occurs frequently in the series. It is the value that occurs most of the times. Thus the chance of the selection of value of mode is highest in sampling.

HELPS IN STUDYING QUALITATIVE PHENOMENON: It can be calculated in series which are classified on qualitative basis.

NOT AFFECTED BY SAMPLING FLUCTUATIONS OR EXTREME ITEMS: The presence of extreme items affects its value very little.

CAN BE DETERMINED GRAPHICALLY: It is the positional measure of central tendency. It can be found graphically. The histograms are prepared to locate the mode graphically.

CAN BE CALCULATED IN CASE OF OPEN END SERIES: In case of open end class intervals, it can be easily calculated without converting the series.

DEMERITS OF MODE

NOT RELIABLE: It is the suitable measure for large amount of data. In case there is small size of sample, the value of mode will be not much representative as well as not dependable.

NO ALGEBRAIC MANIPULATION: It is not based on algebraic treatments which makes it an unfit measure for further statistical treatments.

ILL-DEFINED: It can be ill defined in many series and then it cannot be calculated by the usual method. Thus, there involves alternative treatments to find out the Z.

NOT RIGIDLY DEFINED: It cannot be rigidly defined as there are various methods of its calculation but all methods do not give same results.

CANNOT BE DETERMINED ALWAYS: It cannot be determined always. There arises a situation where the series may be bi-modal, tri-modal or multi modal.

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Measures of central tendency	Arithmetic Mean	Median	Distrust of statistics	Statistics
Functions of statistics	Scope of statistics	Limitations of Statistics