Generalizations

arguments with the conclusion that something is the case about all or many things on the basis of what is observed about some of them

• Population
• sample
• target characteristic
• representation
• strength

• group for which the conclusion is allegedy true
• usually in the conclusion

• a premise or premises describing a subset of that population
• group being studied

• main issue
• the characterisitc observed in the sample and concluded to be true of the population
• link btw population and sample
• observed in the sample and inferred of population

critical analysis takes place

give the generalization a grade

• better representation of a sample, the stronger the generalizations
• sample occur with the same frequency or in the same proportion as they occur in the population
• implies a current knowledge-character and relevance
• randomness is important

• each member of the population has an equal chance of occurring in sample to not create a biased sample
• mathematically defined

• Simple Random: fairly homogenous; TC presumed to be evenly distributed throughout the population
• Stratified Random: heterogeneous groupings; TC not evenly distributed throughout the population
• sample to be constucted

• Representativeness of Sample
• - Is it a biased sample?
• - Sample size too small?
• - Sample fails to reflect the diversity of the population
• Inverview Bias
• - Do questions skew the results?
• - TC not clearly definded
• - survey method skews results in a particular direction