Adult-Gerontology Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) Practice Exam

Which measure is appropriate for nominal data, reflecting the category with the greatest frequency?

1. Mode

2. Median

3. Mean

4. Standard deviation

The correct answer is: Mode

The mode is the appropriate measure for nominal data as it identifies the category that occurs with the greatest frequency within the dataset. Nominal data consists of categories without any inherent order, such as gender, race, or symptoms. Since these categories can't be quantitatively compared or averaged, the mode becomes the most relevant statistic, highlighting which category is most prevalent. In contrast, the median and mean are measures of central tendency that require ordinal, interval, or ratio data, which possess a rank order or magnitude, making them unsuitable for nominal data. The standard deviation, on the other hand, is a measure of variability that indicates how spread out the data is around the mean, and thus is also not applicable for nominal categories. Therefore, the mode is unequivocally the correct choice for summarizing the most frequently occurring category in nominal datasets.