DashboardNewsSettingsHelp
Get Premium
Dashboard
Core Connections Integrated III, 2015
CC
Core Connections Integrated III, 2015 View details
Chapter Closure

Exercise 132 Page 217

Let's consider the given survey. Notice that this survey can be separated into two parts. The first one provides some information on the subject of capital punishment regulations.

The constitution allows individual states the freedom to enact laws which are not contradictory to federal laws. For example, capital punishment is permissible in some states but not in others.

The second part includes the question to which Stephanie want to get answers.

Are you in favor of the U.S. Congress passing legislation to override every individual state law and ban the practice of capital punishment?

We know that 38 % of students responded in favor of a federal law governing the use of capital punishment and we want to state if it is a parameter or a statistic.

  • A parameter is a value that describes some measurable characteristic of a population.
  • A statistic is a value that describes some measurable characteristic of a sample.

We need to think about what the population of the survey should be. Since this question relates to the regulations in federal law, the population which should be surveyed is the population of the U.S. Stephanie only surveyed the students in her class which means that the value she got is a characteristic of a sample. Therefore, it is a statistic.
Let's pay closer attention to the first part of the survey.

The constitution allows individual states the freedom to enact laws which are not contradictory to federal laws. For example, capital punishment is permissible in some states but not in others.

The wording of this statement states that capital punishment is not contradictory with federal law. While this is true, many people could argue for or against capital punishment being regulated by the federal law. However, the mention of constitution in the first sentence could sway students to answer that each state should decide for their own and that the federal law should not interfere.
In Part A, we stated that the measure which Stephanie obtained is a statistic. This is because she questioned a sample of a population. She could have used a convenience sampling because it was easy to survey the students in her government class.

  • They are a group of people she spends a lot of time with.
  • They might have a similar background and level of education.
  • They are probably the same age and live in close proximity to each other.

However, those factors also introduce bias because they make this sample unrepresentative of the entire population — the whole population of the U.S.
Subchapter links expand_more
arrow_right Exercises
132
Exercises 133 (Page 217)
Exercises 134 (Page 217)
Exercises 135 (Page 218)
Exercises 136 (Page 218)
Exercises 137 (Page 218)
Exercises 138 (Page 218)
Exercises 139 (Page 219)
Exercises 140 (Page 219)