One
of the concepts that I was really interested in from this chapter was
Generalization. It somewhat ties in with what we were discussing last week. A
generalization is when you come to a conclusion or make a statement about a
certain group of people based on one example. For example, say I take a survey
of X amount of SJSU students, and they all have taken general education
classes. To say that all SJSU students (24,000+) have taken GE classes is a
generalization.
There
are different ways in which you can make a proper generalization. You can take
polls or surveys of groups of people. After you collect the information, you
can draw a conclusion and make a generalization. You have to be careful though,
because you want to make sure that you have an unbiased selection of
candidates. Whether it’s random polling or selective sampling, you need to be
sure to survey the right people or else your generalization will be skewed.
Generalizations are a little tricky. Generalizations can be helpful in arguments, but they can also hurt an argument. Drawing a conclusion about a certain group based on a sample of it is not always the most reliable way to get information. Due to the slanted questioning of polls, surveys, and sampling, people can vote one way but actually feel another but not know that they are voting for something that they actually don’t believe in. I worked at a polling place last year and I was unable to vote but I did get to help people fill out their ballots and also try to help them understand exactly what they were voting for. Due to the slanted questioning of the phrases, a lot of people were confused.
ReplyDelete