why is it not appropriate to calculate Means and Standard De

why is it not appropriate to calculate Means and Standard Deviations for grouped variables like ethnicity, year in college, where you live now, and family composition of the home you grew up in

Solution

Because those kind of data are not interval or ratio variables. It is not proper to find the mean value of data that are not interval or ratio levels.

That is because these data are not evenly spaced, so it is hard to assign numbers for them and if we do, it\'s even harder to interpret the meaning of the means and standard deviations.