2.SamplingandMeasurement.ppt

2. Sampling and Measurement;Categorical variable – scale for measurement is a set of categories;Quantitative variable – possible values differ in magnitude;Scales of measurement;For quantitative variables, set of possible values is called an interval scale. (i.e., numerical interval between each possible pair of values) Note: In practice, ordinal categorical variables often treated as interval by assigning scores (e.g., Grades A,B,C,D,E an ordinal scale, but treated as interval if assign scores 4,3,2,1,0 to construct a GPA) Ordering of variable types from highest to lowest level of differentiation among levels: interval ordinal nominal;Another classification: Discrete/Continuous;What type of variable is 1. No. of movies seen this summer (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, …) 2. Favorite music type of (rock, jazz, folk, classical)3. Happiness (very happy, pretty happy, not too happy);Collecting Data in a Study;Randomization – the mechanism for achieving reliable data by reducing potential bias;How to implement random sampling?; Other probability sampling methods include systematic, stratified, cluster random sampling. (text, pp. 21-24) For nonprobability sampling, cannot specify probabilities for the possible samples. Inferences based on them may be highly unreliable. Example: volunteer samples, such as polls on the Internet, often are severely biased. (But, sometimes volunteer samples are all we can get, as in most medical studies);Examples: Volunteer samples;Experimental vs. observational studies;The sampling error of a statistic equals the error that occurs when we use a sample statistic to predict the value of a population parameter. Randomization protects against bias, with sampling error tending to fluctuate around 0 with predictable size We’ll learn methods that let us predict magnitude (the margin of error) e.g., in estimating a percentage, no more than about +3% or -3% when n about 1000 (e.g., Gallup poll) Direction and extent of bias unknown for studies that can