How do I explain that a standard deviation x 2 or 3 is byond range of question responses?

Question

Example: Mean score on a scale of 1-10 is 7.9 and the standard deviation is 1.78. 2 or 3 standard deviations exceeds 10. How do I explain that.

Answer 1

The distribution of responses is not normal so standard deviations, in the sense that you are probably thinking about them, is not the same. You can still think of standard deviations as a measure of spread, even though you are quickly cut off on the top side of your values--there are still values on the bottom side of this scale for which this will still apply.