A psychology professor wanted to describe his/her class in terms of the personality characteristic of introversion/extroversion.The population variance was estimated to be 2.56.What does this mean?
A)When the professor uses the population mean to predict individuals' scores,he/she should expect to be in error by about 2.56.
B)When the professor uses the population mean to predict individuals' scores,he/she should expect to be more accurate by about 2.56.
C)It is impossible to tell because the mean is not known.
D)The sample mean differs from the population mean by about 2.56.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The population variance being estimated as 2.56 indicates the amount of variability in the scores of the class with respect to introversion/extroversion. It does not provide information about the accuracy of the prediction of individual scores based on the population mean. However, as population variance is a measure of dispersion or spread of the scores, the professor can expect to be in error by about 2.56 when predicting individual scores based on the population mean. Therefore, option A is the best choice.

A Psychology Professor Wanted to Describe His/her Class in Terms