Chapter 11 NotesData Analysis

Surveya way of collecting opinions or information.

Populationevery person in the group. The student population refers to every student in the school.
Sampleany group taken from the full sample. A sample of a school may be one person taken from
each homeroom class.
Convenience samplea sample made by choosing individuals from the population who are easy to
access. If I want a survey of the activities students would like to have available at lunch hour, but I
sample only the group of students who are in the library at noon, that may be a convenient way to get a
group of students for the survey, but would not necessarily represent the population.
Random samplea sample made by randomly choosing individuals from the population.
Stratified samplea sample made by dividing the whole population into distinct groups and then
choosing the same fraction from each group. For instance, in a consolidated school if you were to divide
the full student population into groups of primary K-3; elementary 4-6; and junior high 7-9; then, to
choose one third of the respondents from each of those 3 groups.
Systematic samplea sample made by choosing people at fixed intervals from a list of the whole
population. For instance, to print out a full list of the student population and then choose every tenth
person on the list.
Voluntary response samplea sample made by inviting the whole population to participate. Whoever
volunteers makes up the sample.
Biased samplea sample that does not represent the population. A biased sample would be taking just
the grade 7 homeroom class for a survey of what books we want in the school library. It would not be
representative of the population as preferences may vary by grade.
Hypothesisa statement that you make in order to test it out and see if it holds true.
Assumptionwhen something is taken for being true. It is assumed to be true.
Generalizationto apply an idea or statement to a broader situation. For instance, an inaccurate
generalization would be: asking three people in gym class if they like pizza, they respond no, and you
later state that grade 9 students dont like pizza. An accurate generalization would be: if you survey a
random sample of students from each of the junior high schools in PEI regarding what type of
vegetables they eat most often, getting 82% responding carrots and then stating most grade 9
students prefer carrots.

Advertising Claimswhen an advertisement states a claim about the performance of a product or

service. The statement is designed to encourage you to buy the product or service. The statement may
be true, false, or a bit of both.
Ethicsthe judging of right and wrong. It would be unethical to cheat on a math test.
Influencing Factors of data:
Biasif the question shows a preference toward a certain choice.
Use of languageif the question is worded in such a way as to make the question unclear to people.
Ethicsif the question refers to anything inappropriate.
Costif the cost of the study is more than the benefit of whatever will come from the results.
Time and timingif the time the data were collected influences the results.
Privacyif people are concerned about whether others will know what they answered.
Cultural sensitivityif the question may offend people from varying cultures.