Question

Three professors at the University of Macau compared two different approaches to teaching courses in the faculty of business administration. At the time of the study, there were 2,100 students in the faculty, and 96 students were involved in the study. Demographic data collected on these 96 students included year of study (first, second, third, fourth), age, gender, and major. The demographic variable of year of study is an example of a. none of the other choices. b. a discrete numerical variable. c. a continuous numerical variable. d. a categorical variable.

Answer 1

Demographic Variables- These variables are collected by researchrs to decribe and understand the nature and distribution of sample under consideration. These variables are mainly used for applied statistics and few examples of these variables are age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic measures etc

The demographic information that is dervied using the demographic variable explains the characteristics of the sample units under the study and also helps in making the inference whether the sample units are a complete representative of the population.

The Quantitative Variables can be classified into 3 categories -

1) Categorical variables - These contain a finite set of categories or distinct groups. This data might not have a logical order.

2) Discrete Variables - These are numeric variables that are countable in nature and have a finite number of values.

3) Continous Variables -  These are numeric variables that take infinite number of values between 2 given values.

In the question, the Demographic data collected on these 96 students included year of study (first, second, third, fourth), age, gender, and major. Thus, these demographic varibales under study are categorical variables.

For example, Year of srudy is the variable that divides the data into Categories like Group of 1st Year Students etc.