Which term describes the distance between a score and the mean?

Which term describes the distance between a score and the mean?

• A. Variance
• B. Range
• C. Deviation
• D. Standard Deviation

Answer: (C)

The distance between a single score and the mean is called the deviation. It is the difference between the score and the mean (often written as x minus x̄). This can be positive if the score is above the mean or negative if it’s below. When we focus on how far it is without regard to direction, we use the absolute value of that difference; however, in many analyses we keep the sign to see whether values are above or below the mean. Variance and standard deviation relate to this idea but describe dispersion across all scores, not the distance for a single score. Variance is the average of the squared deviations, which removes direction and gives a measure of overall spread. Standard deviation is the square root of the variance, providing a typical distance from the mean for the dataset as a whole. Range, by contrast, is just the difference between the maximum and minimum values and does not reference the mean at all. So the term that describes the distance from a score to the mean is deviation.

The distance between a single score and the mean is called the deviation. It is the difference between the score and the mean (often written as x minus x̄). This can be positive if the score is above the mean or negative if it’s below. When we focus on how far it is without regard to direction, we use the absolute value of that difference; however, in many analyses we keep the sign to see whether values are above or below the mean.

Variance and standard deviation relate to this idea but describe dispersion across all scores, not the distance for a single score. Variance is the average of the squared deviations, which removes direction and gives a measure of overall spread. Standard deviation is the square root of the variance, providing a typical distance from the mean for the dataset as a whole. Range, by contrast, is just the difference between the maximum and minimum values and does not reference the mean at all.

So the term that describes the distance from a score to the mean is deviation.