hi i need help please help me
Please read these 2 questions and reply back with your impression, thoughts, and experiences relating to these two topics. One page reply for each questions .
Queaton 1
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For this discussion post, I chose to locate and analyze a survey poll that addressed a critical issue that plagues millions of people around the world—stress. Most people can relate to being seized up by the pangs of stress at some point in their lives. It was of no surprise then that, after doing a little digging, I came across tons of surveys and studies relating to stress in one form or another. One study in particular from the American Psychological Association sought to determine just how much of an influence financial or economic issues have on the average American’s stress levels. The survey (conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of the APA) ultimately concluded that money matters remain a top source of stress for the majority of Americans, particularly for parents, younger generations, and hose living in lower-income households (“American Psychological Association”, 2015). The breakdown of the poll results is as follows: of the 3068 adults polled, it was determined that roughly 72 percent of Americans feel stressed about money at least some of the time during the past month (“American Psychological Association”, 2015). Twenty-two percent said that their stress levels were extreme during the past month (side note: severity of stress levels was reported based on 10-point scale, with a 10 indicating “a great deal of stress”, and 1 indicating “little or no stress”). For roughly 64% of Americans, money is a somewhat or very significant source of stress, especially for parents and younger adults.
The survey, entitled “Stress in America: Paying with Our Health”, was conducted online within the United States between August 4th and August 29th, 2014, among 3068 adults ages 18 and up (“American Psychological Association”, 2015). In regards to the sampling method used, random sampling (wherein each member of the population has an equal and known chance of being selected) was employed to select participants and support findings. In my opinion, this method of sampling was appropriate given the fact that a significantly large population was considered for this study. Typically, random sampling is considered ideal for surveys that involve large populations (“Survey Sampling Methods”, n.d.). A confidence interval was not provided within the article.
In regards to how confident I am of the results given the methodology, to be honest I am somewhat iffy about it because it was explained in the article that this was in fact a web-based survey, and that participants were invited to take part. As with any web-based survey, there exists the very real possibility that the participants aren’t really who they say they are. Furthermore, a strictly web-based survey means that those without computers or internet access are not taken into account, which arguably compromises the integrity of the survey. I believe that surveys that are conducted on-site or in person are more reliable and cut down on inaccuracies and misinformation considerably. Also, I would like to know what criteria (if any) participants had to meet in order to be considered eligible for an invite to take the survey.
References
American Psychological Association Survey Shows Money Stress Weighing on Americans’ Health Nationwide. (2015, February 4.). Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2015/02/money-stress.aspx
Survey Sampling Methods. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.statpac.com/surveys/sampling.htm
Question 2
Desire for Children Still Norm in U.S is the article I would like to discuss for this week’s assignment. This article focuses on children’s birthrates in the United States. As stated by the article, “U.S. birthrate down, but attitudes toward having children unchanged” (Gallup, 2015). I selected this article “Desire for children in the US” because it was interesting to read and has data that our readings were for this discussion. According to the Gallup survey, fertility rate has been stabilelately in comparison to 90’s even when their desire to having children has not change. In accordance to center of disease control, “the rate of fertility has decreased and has reached a point at all-time low in 2011… the birth rate at 63.2 child births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44. From 1990, the fertility rate has dropped to 11%, when there were 70.9 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44.” (Newport, 2013, Para. 3). According to the article, the Gallup article most likely used random sampling to get their results. The results state that there is no transformation in the desire to have children. As stated, the drop in the U.S. fertility rate has caused a media buzz recently. For example, Time magazine’s August cover story indicated that Americans are beginning to embrace a life without children. While that may be true for a small number of Americans, it does not describe Americans more generally.” (Gallop, 2015). The results stated that younger Americans have a wish to have more kids than the older generation. It is also understood that greater than 75% of the volunteer of this study accept the fact that restrictions in having kids is solely based on finance. As Newport reported, “specifically, 65 % of Americans stated financial status was their factor in determining if they wanted to raise a child…not having sufficient money or the cost of raising a child, and another 11% name the state of the economy or the paucity of jobs in the U.S.” (Newport, 2013, Para. 20).
In the Gallup Article, the confidence interval was not stated. In order to understand the value of confidence interval it’s important to define the term confidence interval. The term confidence interval is “a predictable range of values which is likely to include an unknown population parameter, the estimated range being calculated from a given set of sample data” (Confidence Intervals, 2013, Para. 2). For example, when an experiment is being conducted and the tests’ values are noted. The values are different in each trail of the tests and the interval is between two numerical values from the lowest to the highest value; CI = mean +/- (Z-score)*(standard error of mean). Also, the standard error of mean can be estimated by (Standard Deviation)*√ (n), where (n) is the sample size. The higher the interval the less precise it is. The lower the interval the more accurate it is. And the actual value will lie within the interval. In a binomial curve, a 95% (CI) confidence interval means that it covers 95% of the curve, in other words it covers 95% of the population. In this Gallop’s article, the poll’s sample size was also not provided. When we have a bigger sample size for surveys or polls for instance then this leads to decrease in CI. Therefore, the lower the CI we have the more accurate the value is. The greater the number of participants the more strongly the study is. The article also did not provide sample size. I am doubtful with this study since the sample size wasn’t provided.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 15 Jan. 2015. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.
Confidence Intervals. (n.d.). Department of Statistics. Retrieved January 29, 2015, fromhttp://www.stat.yale.edu/Courses/1997-98/101/confint.htm
Newport, F., &Wilke, J. (2013, September 25). Desire for Children Still Norm in U.S.. Gallup.Com – Daily News, Polls, Public Opinion on Politics, Economy, Wellbeing, and World. Retrieved January 30, 2015, fromhttp://www.gallup.com/poll/164618/desire-children-norm.aspx
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