I agree.
One useful way of describing what statistics is as a methodology to help
people (including researchers) not to generalise unwisely.
Alan
Thom Baguley wrote:
>
> Elliot Cramer wrote:
> >
> > On Fri, 23 Mar 2001, Alan McLean wrote:
> >
> > > The second sentence here ensures that generalisability to a population
> > > IS an issue for statistics. And a big issue, usually overlooked.
> > >
> > It is not a statistical issue with a non-random sample; it is a matter of
> > experimental judgement
>
> If you mean it depends more on the design and the theoretical background of
> the study then you are spot on, IMO. The contribution of statistics (relative
> to other factors) to generalizability is small (but still important).
>
> Thom
>
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--
Alan McLean ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics
Monash University, Caulfield Campus, Melbourne
Tel: +61 03 9903 2102 Fax: +61 03 9903 2007
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