A distribution of scores and the General Social Survey: The General Social Surve

Question

A distribution of scores and the General Social Survey: The General Social Survey (GSS) is a survey of approximately 2000 adults conducted each year since 1972, for a total of more than 38,000 participants. During several years of the GSS, participants were asked how many close friends they have. The mean for this variable is 7.44 friends with a standard deviation of 10.98. The median is 5.00 and the mode is 4.00. For this problem, pretend that the GSS sample is the entire population of interest. Imagine that you randomly selected one person from this population who reported that he had 18 close friends. Would you compare his score to a distribution of scores or to a distribution of means and why?

A distribution of scores. The original data is likely to be normally distributed so there is no reason to create a sample distribution.

A distribution of means. The original data is likely to be skewed so using a distribution of means will create a normal distribution.

A distribution of scores. Since the mean value is from a population of scores, we should compare our sample data to individual scores.

A distribution of scores. Our friend has a single score, so we should compare it to individual scores.

Explanation / Answer

Solution:

A distribution of means. The original data is likely to be skewed so using a distribution of means will create a normal distribution.

Explanatioin:

We would use a distribution of means because we are comparing a sample ofa larger population to see if the average of friends differs based on where they live

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