1) Questionnaire - A set of fixed-format, self-report items that is completed by respondents at their own pace, often without supervision.
2) Response rate - The percentage of people who actually complete the questionnaire and return it.
3) Population - The entire group of people that the researcher intends to learn about.
4) Sample - The small group of people participating in the research that are representative of the population.
5) Sampling frame - List of the all the people in the population.
6) Simple random sampling - Choosing people from the population in a way which ensures each individual has an equal chance of being selected.
7) Sampling bias - Occurs when two conditions are not met: a) a sampling frame is unobtainable, b) not all of the selected individuals are tested. When a sampling bias is present, then the sample is not representative of the population.
8) Distribution - The pattern of scores observed on a measured variable.
9) Standard deviation - Indicates the spread of
a distribution; a larger number indicates a greater spread and a smaller
number denotes a smaller spread.
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