Problem Set 1

Pedro Maia

1.A) These numbers are statistics because parameters referrer to the whole population and
statistics refer to a numerical summary of the sample and inferring from this sample to a
population.
1.B) This illustrate the inferential method, since the study starts with a small sample -
mirroring the population – and then it infers something to the whole population.
2.A)
Race Age Sent_length Felony Prior arrests Prior_convict
White 19 years 2 months No 2 1
Black 23 years 12 months No 0 0
White 38 years 120 months Yes 8 3
Hispanic 20 years 2.5 months No 1 1
White 41 years 60 months Yes 5 4

2.B)
Race Age Sent_length Felony Prior arrests Prior_convict
Qualitative Numerical Numerical Qualitative Numerical Numerical
Nominal Continuous Continuous Ordinal Discrete Discrete

3.A) The average age.

3.B) Estimating the average age of brides at marriage for the population to between 23.5
and 24.7 years.
3.C) To the population between 23.5 and 24.7 years.
3.D) Random sample.
4.A) It would be an experimental study because: 1) part of the subjects was assigned to
experimental conditions/treatment and the other part became the control group and; 2)
after a specific time period subject’s response to the treatment were compared.
4.B) One could search for health data on people working with active smokers, randomly
sample and then see the indicators of lung cancer. It would be an observational study.
5.A) Subjects were enrolled according to their manifested willingness.
5.B) Stratified sampling.
6.A) It is not a simple random sample. Because in a simple random sample situation one
assigns a number to each unit in the sampling frame and there is an equal probability of
selection.
6.B) Quota sampling. Possibility of being more representable of the population.
 Problem Set 1
Pedro Maia

7) This is an illustration of Response/Measurement bias, given the that the second

question was written as a “or” question and the answer was “yes” or “no”. In a sampling
bias situation, the possible source of error would be in the selection of my population, due
to the use non-probability sampling or undercoverage, whereas response/measurement
bias deals with the gap between what we want to measure and what was actually
measured.
8.A) Stratified sampling.
8.B) Ethnicity and gender as independent variables. I would like to measure reactions
towards ethnicity and gender, and I would do so by looking at positive or negative
behavior as dependent variables.
8.C) Ethnicity would be treated as categorical and nominal. Gender would also be
categorical and nominal. The behavior would be treated as a quantitative variable, ordinal
(1- do not treat well, until 5 – treat well) and discrete.
8.D) How do you react to males/females from x ethnicity? In scale from 1 to 5, being 1 a
bad treatment and 5 a good treatment, how do you treat men from x ethnicity? In scale
from 1 to 5, being 1 a bad treatment and 5 a good treatment, how do you treat women
from x ethnicity?