Population vs Sample

[Limista]

Hi,

How do you differentiate between the population and sample in a scenario extended response question?

I am able to differentiate between the two only intuitively, but if someone was to ask me to justify how I knew what the population was, I would have nothing to say except, "Well, because it is."

Would appreciate it if someone could clearly explain this to me.

Thanks

[Felicity Wishes]

The population refers to a wide group in which the sample is drawn from. I'm not sure what else to say..
The sample is used in the study and it should be representative of that population.

[Limista]

Hmm... those are the definitions for each. If an example could be provided along with a more detailed explanation, it would be much appreciated.  Sorry to be a bother by the way.

[Scooby]

The population is the wider group of research interest. Members of the population all share some sort of characteristic (eg. they all drink coffee in the morning). The sample is a group of participants selected from the population who actually take part in the research. The rest of the population doesn't take part in the research but the findings can be generalised to these people. Generally the sample is represented as a particular quantity of participants (eg. 50 people who drink coffee in the morning), whereas the population isn't (people who drink coffee in the morning)

I dunno if that helps at all 

[julie9300]

What if the sample was, say, year 12 students from a local high school studying VCE Psychology. Would the population be students, students from the local high school, year 12 students, year 12 students from the local high school, or year 12 students studying psychology?

[Limista]

The population is the wider group of research interest. Members of the population all share some sort of characteristic (eg. they all drink coffee in the morning). The sample is a group of participants selected from the population who actually take part in the research. The rest of the population doesn't take part in the research but the findings can be generalised to these people. Generally the sample is represented as a particular quantity of participants (eg. 50 people who drink coffee in the morning), whereas the population isn't (people who drink coffee in the morning)

I dunno if that helps at all 

Thanks - does clarify 

[Scooby]

What if the sample was, say, year 12 students from a local high school studying VCE Psychology. Would the population be students, students from the local high school, year 12 students, year 12 students from the local high school, or year 12 students studying psychology?

It could be any of them. Just depends on what the researcher decides. Then again, that sample wouldn't be representative of any of those populations 

The population would probably be "year 12 students from a local high school studying VCE Psychology"