PSYC 2002 Lecture 7: Statistics
12 Feb 2019
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Outline: relation of probability to random sampling, inferential statistics & hypothesis testing, probability and frequency distributions, normal distribution, z-scores. Decision making: the risks and rewards of sampling, 2000 us presidential election; florida vote count, tv networks use of common sample poll. Sample might not represent the larger population. May not know that the sample is misleading. Might make decisions based on this inaccurate information. Remain open-minded because we know samples can mislead us. Better decisions based on the available evidence. Ideal, but: expensive and potentially impossible to implement. Sample that uses participants who are readily available. Lecture 7: used in most psychological studies, volunteer sample: subtype of convenience sample in which participants actively choose to participate in a study. Random assignment: all participants have an equal chance of being assigned to a condition. Every member of the populations has an equal chance of being selected into the study. Probability is the key that links samples and populations.
