dennis roberts said on 4/4/03 7:43 AM:
>finally, if the government MAKES you do a t test ... fine, go ahead but ... >it sure does not mean that they are correct in insisting you do it
Isn't Frick's argument for inference to 'processes' rather than inference to 'populations' persuasive to justify t-tests (or other inferential methods) when you have a complete population of data?
well, no, not necessarily to me ... what IS the process here? the only process i can see having any potential validity is that ... "our male and female employees have been selected in a way that makes them "representative" of something ... " ... but what is that something?
a t test ... just to name one ... is a process of testing some null hypothesis ... under certain assumptions ... and sure, you CAN do a t test here but ... what are the implications about the results you get ... related to a null?
Paul . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
_________________________________________________________
dennis roberts, educational psychology, penn state university
208 cedar, AC 8148632401, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://roberts.ed.psu.edu/users/droberts/drober~1.htm
. . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
