AS Statistics Flashcards
Population
The whole set of items that are of interest
Census
Observes or measures every member of a population
Sample
A selection of observations taken from a subset of the population which is used to find out information about the population as a whole
Sampling frame
List of sampling units, with each unit given an identifying name or number
Advantages/disadvantages of a census
Advantages:
Completely accurate result
Disadvantages:
Time consuming, expensive, cannot be used when testing process destroys the item, hard to process large quantity of data
Sample advantages/ disadvantages
Advantages:
Less time consuming/expensive, fewer people have to respond, less data to process than in a census
Disadvantages:
Data may not be as accurate, sample may not be large enough to give data about small subgroups of the population
Sampling units
Individual units of a population
Simple random sample
Where every sample of size n has an equal chance of being selected
Systematic sampling
Required elements are chosen at regular intervals from an ordered list
Stratified sampling
Population is divided into mutually exclusive strata and a random sample is taken from each
Simple random sampling advantages/disadvantages
Advantages: free of bias, easy and cheap to implement for small samples/populations, each sampling unit has a known and equal chance of selection
Disadvantages: not suitable for large populations (time consuming, disruptive, expensive), a sampling frame is needed
Systematic sampling advantages/disadvantages
Advantages: simple and quick to use, suitable for large samples/populations
Disadvantages: a sampling frame is needed, can introduce bias if the sampling frame is not random
Stratified sampling advantages/disadvantages
Advantages: sample accurately reflects population structure, guarantees proportional representation of groups within a population.
Disadvantages: population must be classified into distinct strata, selection within each stratum suffers from same disadvantages as simple random sampling
Quota sampling
an interviewer or researcher selects a sample that reflects the characteristics of the whole population
Opportunity sampling
Consists of taking the sample from people who are available at the time the study is carried out and who fit the criteria you are looking for
Quota sampling advantages/disadvantages
Advantages: allows a small sample to still be representative of the whole population, no sampling frame required, quick, easy and inexpensive, allows for easy comparison between different groups within a population
Disadvantages: non-random sampling can introduce bias, population must be divided into groups which can be costly and inaccurate, increasing scope of study increases number of groups (adding time and expense), non-responses are not recorded as such
Opportunity sampling advantages/disadvantages
Advantages: easy to carry out, inexpensive
Disadvantages: unlikely to provide a representative sample, highly dependent on individual researcher
Quantitative data/variables
variables or data associated with numerical observations
Qualitative data/variables
variables or data associated with non-numerical observations
continuous variable
a variable that can take any value in a given range
discrete variable
a variable that can take only specific values in a given range
grouped frequency table (gft)
the specific data values are not shown but are included in groups (or classes)
mid-point (gft)
average of class boundaries
Daily mean temperature units
degrees Celsius
Daily total rainfall units
mm
Amounts less than 0.05 mm are recorded as ‘tr’ or ‘trace’
Daily total sunshine
recorded to the nearest tenth of an hour
Daily mean windspeed/daily maximum gust units
knots
Daily maximum relative humidity
Given as a percentage of air saturation with water vapour.
Above 95% gives rise to misty and foggy conditions
Daily mean cloud cover units
‘okras’ (eighths of the sky covered by cloud)