Memorial University of Newfoundland

• PHIL 1100

• (1) Which of the following is most valid and least valid? Explain why. a) About one in three Canadians attended a church service during the first week of May. This is down slightly, but not significantly, from the 37% who reported attendance a year earlier. Results are based on 1042 personal, in-home interviews with adults 18 years and over, conducted during the first week of May. A sample of this size is accurate within a four percent margin, 19 times out of 20. b) James was not a satisfactory employee. He was employed for 12 months and was supposed to spend five mornings per week in the office. During this time I went to the office 15 times. On eight occasions he was not in the office and claimed to be working from home. On four others, he had young children with him and seemed not to be getting much done. On three other times I found him on the telephone, chatting away with what seemed to be personal calls. c) In a survey of men published in 1982, 50.5 percent of the men questioned said that their favourite sex life would be a marriage in which their wife was their only sexual partner. The results were based on interviews with 4000 men who were approached primarily in shopping centres and malls, but also in office building complexes, tennis clubs, college campuses, airports, and bus depots. The communities form which subjects were selected varied in affluence. Argument a) is the most valid argument of the three givens. There is a representative sample included in this argument which is one of the reasons it is the most valid. This represents the findings in the target population of Canadians that attend a church service during the first week of May accurately. This is justified due to its accuracy margin. The second reason this argument is the most valid is due to the fact that they studied Canadians attending church specifically in the first week of May and they also conducted the research in the first week of May. This is using a correct scope and therefore enforces the validity of the argument. Overall, because of these two reasons, this argument is the most valid of the three presented.