When speaking about "populations" with reference to sampling and statistics, what is the most accurate description of what we are speaking about?

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BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Question restatement: We are being asked to describe what 'populations' refer to in the context of sampling and statistics, and to choose the most accurate option.
Option 1: 'All people in the country in which the data is being collected.' This is a common informal idea of population, but it's too narrow because a population could be broader than a single country or could be defined by criteria other than geography, such as all individuals with a certain trait. It also ignores that a population is defined for the purpose of the study, not necessarily by location alone.
Option 2: 'All people who could be affected by the outcomes of our research.' While this captures a practical consideration about implications, it is not the formal statistical definition of a population. The population is about data or units of analysis, not solely about potential effects or stakeholders.
Option 3: 'The total set of possible data, of which our sample is a subset.' This aligns with the formal statistical concept of a population: it encompasses every data point that could be observed under a given study design, with the sample representing a subset drawn from that complete set. It emphasizes that the population is the complete collection of possible observations.
Option 4: 'The total set of possible experiments, of which our experiment is one.' This describes a population of experiments, which is a different concept (sampling units or data points, not experiments). It misframes the idea by focusing on experiments rather than the data units or observations that could be collected.
In summary, the reasoning behind option 3 being the best match hinges on the formal definition: a population is the entire collection of data points or observations that could be observed in a study, with the sample being a subset drawn from that collection. The other options mischaracterize the scope (location-based, stakeholder-centric, or experimental units) and thus are less accurate representations of the statistical term 'population.'

PSYC20007_2025_SM2 Random Sampling

When speaking about "populations" with reference to sampling and statistics, what is the most accurate description of what we are speaking about?

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