A sociologist is studying the social media habits of high school students in a school district. The sociologist wants to estimate the average total number of minutes spent on social media per day in the population. A random sample of 50 high school students was selected, and they were asked, “How many minutes per day, on average, do you spend visiting social media sites?"
Which of the following is the most appropriate inference procedure for the sociologist to use?
A one-sample z
-interval for a population proportion
A
A one-sample t
-interval for a population mean
B
A matched-pairs t
-interval for a mean difference
C
A two-sample z
-interval for a difference between proportions
D
A two-sample t
-interval for a difference between means
E
Is the correct choice A?
No, the correct choice is B, a one-sample t-interval for a population mean.
In this scenario, the sociologist wants to estimate the average total number of minutes spent on social media per day in the population of high school students. Since the sociologist is only interested in the average, they need to use a procedure that estimates the population mean.
A one-sample t-interval for a population mean is the appropriate inference procedure when you have a random sample from a population and want to estimate the population mean based on the sample data. It is appropriate when the sample size is small, and the population standard deviation is unknown.
In this case, the sociologist has a random sample of 50 students and wants to estimate the population mean of minutes spent on social media per day. The sample data will be used to calculate a confidence interval around the sample mean, which will provide an estimate of the population mean.
The other options (A, C, D, and E) are not appropriate for this scenario as they are for different types of inferences such as proportions or differences between groups, whereas the sociologist is interested in estimating a single population mean.