PSY-0031 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Probability Theory
24 Jan 2017
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Population - entire group that a scientist is interested in, e. g: The numbers that describe the population are parameters. Parameters take greek letters as symbols (e. g, for mean) E. g: the proportion of women in the us is 50. 8% (from 2010 census data) We want to make scientific statements about populations, but it"s hard to fit them all in a psych lab. Instead, we base scientific judgements on samples. Sample - subset of the population of interest, e. g: 35 college students participating in a psych course. 20 senior citizens interviewed at a nursing home. Ideally, a sample is an accurate representation of the entire population. Representative sample - helps to avoid bias. Representative sample is often not possible or desirable. Convenience sample - selected based on availability and/or proximity to the researcher. E. g, students enrolled in introductory psych classes. A lot of psychology is based on studies of college students. Clinical sample - selected on the basis of having shared characteristics.
