Page:Online Statistics Education.pdf/20

 by Mikki Hebl

Prerequisites
 * Chapter 1: Descriptive Statistics

Learning Objectives
 * 1) Distinguish between a sample and a population
 * 2) Define inferential statistics
 * 3) Identify biased samples
 * 4) Distinguish between simple random sampling and stratified sampling
 * 5) Distinguish between random sampling and random assignment

Populations and samples

In statistics, we often rely on a sample --- that is, a small subset of a larger set of data --- to draw inferences about the larger set. The larger set is known as the population from which the sample is drawn.

It is not practical to ask every single American how he or she feels about the fairness of the voting procedures. Instead, we query a relatively small number of Americans, and draw inferences about the entire country from their responses. The Americans actually queried constitute our sample of the larger population of all Americans. The mathematical procedures whereby we convert information about the sample into intelligent guesses about the population fall under the rubric of inferential statistics.

A sample is typically a small subset of the population. In the case of voting attitudes, we would sample a few thousand Americans drawn from the hundreds of millions that make up the country. In choosing a sample, it is therefore crucial that it not over-represent one kind of citizen at the expense of others. For example, something would be wrong with our sample if it happened to be made up entirely of Florida residents. If the sample held only Floridians, it could not be used to infer 20