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moment

n. the power to which the expected value of a random variable is raised. Thus, E(xk) is the kth moment of x. The first moment is usually the mean of a variable, the second moment refers to variance, the third moment relates to skewness, and the fourth moment concerns kurtosis. Knowing each of these moments provides a complete picture of the distribution for a set of scores: A researcher knows the center point of the data, how spread out the values are, whether they are lopsided, and whether they are peaked (leptokurtic) or flat (platykurtic).

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Psychology term of the day

February 16th 2025

morbid obesity

morbid obesity

the condition of having a body mass index over 39 or weighing 50% to 100% over one’s ideal weight. Morbid obesity is associated with diabetes mellitus, heart disease, joint pain, sleep apnea, and stroke.