Assignment task:
175 words each
Discussion post 1:
Analyzing an entire population may seem daunting, If I was a person researching a population, I may choose to study the entire population when a population is small in number, I have reasonable access, and relevant to the question and/or questions that I need to have answered. As we have been studying, if a clinic wants to understand patient satisfaction among its active clientele, I would survey all current patients to ensure completeness and avoid sampling errors. This could be useful for me when the data will directly influence services or policies that affect every member of the population.
Sampling is appropriate when the population is too large, resources are limited, and population is geographically dispersed. In using National behavioral studies often use stratified sampling to make informed generalizations without the impracticality of surveying millions (Qualtrics, 2025).
Using our past studies, here is a hypothesis question, "The purpose of this research is to develop whether patient wait times (which is an independent variable) significantly influences reported satisfaction scores (which is the dependent variable) in a community clinic." The statement would outline the variables and research intentions, which could be suitable for sampling or a full-population analysis depending on what size the clinic is. I think that hypotheses involving inferential statistics or exploratory behavioral patterns are better served by sampling because randomization and statistical modeling allow for generalization (Salkind, 2017). Need Assignment Help?
Salkind, N. J. (201). Statistics for people who (think they) hate statistics (6th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Qualtrics. (2025). Population and samples: the complete guide.
Discussion post 2:
I would say me as a researcher it would be best that "you use population when your research calls for or requires you to collect data from every member of the population "(Qualtrics, 2025). Also, it is normally far easier to collect data from whole populations when they're small and accessible. Then the opposite from that is the sample where it gives out a large population. Therefore, is a certaIn type of research questions and hypotheses that lend themselves to such a study is comprehensive data. That are mainly focused on small populations are suitable for entire population studies. For example, a study on the prevalence of a rare disease in a small town. Then to the types of research questions and hypotheses that do not is exploratory in nature. Which those that involve large populations, are not suitable for entire population studies due to feasibility constraints. For example, a study on the dietary habits of all Americans. Lastly, the example of a hypothesis statement that would be good is the purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of classroom size on student performance. The hypothesis is that students in smaller classes will have higher academic performance than those in larger classes. The variables in this study are classroom size (independent variable) and student performance (dependent variable). Also, this hypothesis statement clearly states the purpose of the research and identifies the variables that will be used.
Reference:
Qualtrics. (2025). Population and samples: the complete guide.