Define population and sample. Why do psychologists study samples rather than populations?
What will be an ideal response?
Ans: Varies.
A population is a complete set of units (people, animals, plants, or things). Usually, we do not have the ability to access a complete population when investigating a psychological question nor do we need to collect data from the entire population in order to understand the population. Instead, we select a sample--a group of units--from the population and use the characteristics of this sample to infer characteristics of the population. Provided that a sample is representative, this is an efficient way to understand the population.
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A. Women B. The disabled C. The LGBT's
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