Dr. Abboud wants to better understand how college students solve problems involving moral dilemmas. To do so, he passes out questionnaires to students in his developmental psychology class, asking them to respond. In Dr. Abboud's study, the students in his class would be considered the ________ and all college students would be considered the ___________.
A) population; sample
B) sample; population
C) random sample; representative sample
D) representative sample; random sample

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This question centers on understanding that a sample consists of a selection of individuals who participate in a study. Researchers study the characteristics or responses of a sample in order to generalize conclusions to the whole group of interest, defined as the population. The distinction between a random sample (where all members of the population are equally likely to be included in the sample) and a representative sample (where the sample is specifically selected so members represent the population in important ways) is not what this question is asking about.

Dr Abboud Wants to Better Understand How College Students Solve