A Psychology Student Wishes to Investigate Differences in Political Opinions

A psychology student wishes to investigate differences in political opinions between business majors and political science majors at her college. She randomly selects 100 students from the 260 business majors and 100 students from the 180 political science majors. Does this sampling plan result in a random sample? Simple random sample? Explain.

A) No; no. The sample is not random because political science majors have a greater chance of being selected than business majors. It is not a simple random sample because some samples are not possible, such as a sample consisting of 50 business majors and 150 political science majors.

B) No; yes. The sample is not random because political science majors have a greater chance of being selected than business majors. It is a simple random sample because all samples of size 200 have the same chance of being selected.

C) Yes; no. The sample is random because all students have the same chance of being selected. It is not a simple random sample because some samples are not possible, such as a sample consisting of 50 business majors and 150 political science majors.

D) Yes; yes. The sample is random because all students have the same chance of being selected. It is a simple random sample because all samples of size 200 have the same chance of being selected.