Scientific stuff - Chapter 1

Question 1

What is population?

Answer 1

The entire group of people belonging to a particular category from which a sample is drawn.

Question 2

What is a sample?

Answer 2

The group of participants selected from, and representative of, the population of research interest.

Question 3

Random allocation of a sample.

Answer 3

A technique that ensures every member of the sample has an equal chance of being assigned to either the control or experimental group.

Question 4

Convenience sampling

Answer 4

Selecting participants based on the researcher’s accessibility to them, or to the participant’s availability.

Question 5

Random sampling

Answer 5

Every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected for the study.

Question 6

Stratified sampling

Answer 6

Breaking the population into ‘strata’ or groups, based on the characteristics they share. Once divided, the researcher randomly selected participants from each strata.

Question 7

Qualitative data

Answer 7

Changes in the quality of behaviour, often expressed in words.

Question 8

Quantitative data

Answer 8

Data in the form of numbers which can be statistically analysed and readily measure and compared with other data.

Question 9

Subjective data

Answer 9

Collected through observations of behaviour or people’s self-reports.

Question 10

Objective data

Answer 10

Collected under controlled conditions. The data is not open to interpretation, such as the height of the person.