Chapter 6, Problem 18TP

Solution

To State:

The type of sample used in the given situation and also mention if the sample is biased or unbiased.

Self-selected sample.

Biased.

Given:

A student sends a survey about the internet usage of high school students via email to each person in his address book and uses only the surveys that are returned.

Concepts Used:

In a self-selected sample only those people who volunteer to respond are part of the sample.

A sample is called biased if it doesn’t represent the population well.

Description:

This is a self-selected sample as only those people who volunteered to respond are part of the sample. Since no random selection of sample is done, it might be true that the people with a particular kind of response to survey questions have greater chance of responding to the survey, this sample is biased.

Conclusion:

This is a self-selected sample. This sample is biased.