Chapter 2: Problem 20
Briefly explain why it is advisable to avoid the use of convenience samples.
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Chapter 2: Problem 20
Briefly explain why it is advisable to avoid the use of convenience samples.
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A mortgage lender routinely places advertisements in a local newspaper. The advertisements are of three different types: one focusing on low interest rates, one featuring low fees for first-time buyers, and one appealing to people who may want to refinance their homes. The lender would like to determine which adver- tisement format is most successful in attracting customers to call for more information. Describe an experiment that would provide the information needed to make this determination. Be sure to consider extraneous variables, such as the day of the week that the advertisement appears in the paper, the section of the paper in which the advertisement appears, or daily fluctuations in the interest rate. What role does random assignment play in your design?
As part of a curriculum review, the psychology department would like to select a simple random sample of 20 of last year's 140 graduates to obtain information on how graduates perceived the value of the curriculum. Describe two different methods that might be used to select the sample.
An article titled "I Said, Not While You Study: Science Suggests Kids Can't Study and Groove at the Same Time" appeared in the Washington Post (September 5,2006 ). This provides an example of a reporter summarizing the result of a scientific study in a way that is designed to make it accessible to the newspaper's readers. You can find the newspaper article online by searching on the title or by going to http://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/03/AR2006090300592 html. The study referenced in the newspaper article was published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science and can be found at http://www.pnas.org/ content/103/31/11778.full. Read the newspaper article and then take a look at the published paper. Comment on whether you think that the author was successful in communicating the findings of the study to the intended audience.
The authors of the paper "Illicit Use of Psychostimulants among College Students" (Psychology, Health \& Medicine [2002]: 283-287) surveyed college students about their use of legal and illegal stimulants. The sample of students surveyed consisted of students enrolled in a psychology class at a small, competitive college in the United States. a. Was this sample a simple random sample, a stratified sample, a systematic sample, or a convenience sample? Explain. b. Give two reasons why the estimate of the proportion of students who reported using illegal stimulants based on data from this survey should not be generalized to all U.S. college students.
Doctors have expressed concern about young women drinking large amounts of soda and about their decreased consumption of milk ("Teenaged Girls, Carbonated Beverage Consumption, and Bone Fractures," Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine [2000]: \(610-613\) ). In parts (a)-(d), construct two questions that might be included in a survey of teenage girls. Each question should include possible responses from which the respondent can select. (Note: The questions as written are vague. Your task is to clarify the questions for use in a survey, not just to change the syntax!) a. How much "cola" beverage does the respondent consume? b. How much milk (and milk products) is consumed by the respondent? c. How physically active is the respondent? d. What is the respondent's history of bone fractures?
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