An employer offers its employees a program that will provide up to four free psychological counseling sessions per calendar year. To evaluate satisfaction with this service, the counseling office mails questionnaires to every 10th employee who used the benefit in the prior year. There were 1000 employees who used the benefit. Therefore, 100 surveys were sent out. However, only 25 of the potential respondents completed and returned their questionnaire.
a) Describe the population for the study.
b) Describe the sample.
c) What concern is raised by the fact that only 25 of the 100 questionnaires were completed and returned?
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a) The population for the study is the 1000 employees who used the psychological counseling benefit in the prior year.
b) The sample is the 100 employees who were selected to receive the questionnaire, specifically every 10th employee who used the benefit.
c) The concern raised by the fact that only 25 of the 100 questionnaires were completed and returned is that the sample size is now significantly smaller, which may not be representative of the entire population. This low response rate could introduce response bias, as the views of those who responded may differ from those who did not. Therefore, the results of the survey may not accurately reflect the satisfaction level of all employees who used the counseling service.