A sociologist studying freshmen at a major university carried out a survey, asking (among other questions) how often students went out per week, how many hours they studied per day, and how many hours they slept at night. The sociologist, who would like a simple random sample but finds it too time consuming to obtain such a sample, decides to use all students enrolled in his own class. This type of sample:
A)is a convenience sample.
B)likely results in undercoverage of certain types of freshmen.
C)could lead to biased conclusions.
D)All of the answer options are correct.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The sociologist's method of sampling is a convenience sample because it only includes students from his own class, which likely results in undercoverage of the broader freshman population and could lead to biased conclusions due to the lack of randomness and potential overrepresentation or underrepresentation of certain groups.

A Sociologist Studying Freshmen at a Major University Carried Out