Question

1. Describing the shape and nature of a distribution of scores is a basic skill any researcher needs to inform a lay audience. Changes in skewness and Kurtosis can happen with particular kinds of data. Give an example of what could happen during data collection that can create each kind of change from a standard normal curve that is listed below.

• A positively skewed distribution:
• A Leptokurtic distribution:

Answer 1

Solution:

Positively Skewed distribution:

In a positively skewed distribution the distribution curve has long tail in right direction. The standard normal curve is symmetrical but the positively skewed curve is not symmetric. In the positively skewed distribution most of the data are clustered around the left tail. A curve of positively skewed distribution is given below:

For a standard normal distribution Mean = Median = Mode. Whereas for a positively skewed distribution Mean > Median > Mode.

A leptokurtic distribution:

By kurtosis we have an idea about the flatness or peakness of the curve.

A standard normal curve is known as mesokurtic curve. A curve which is more peaked than the normal curve is known as leptokurtic curve. A curve which is flatter than the normal curve is known as Platykurtic.

A distribution with leptokurtic curve is known as leptokurtic distribution. A leptokurtic distribution curve is given below:

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