Dr Dowling Is a Clinical Psychologist Who Is Interested in the Link

question 64

Essay

Dr. Dowling is a clinical psychologist who is interested in the link between mental illness and criminal activity. She gets IRB permission to study patients at all five inpatient/residential mental health facilities in her state. There are 4,307 patients currently living in these facilities. She asks patients whether they have ever been arrested for a crime and whether they have ever been convicted of a crime. She collects a sample size of 1,369. She finds that 27% (+/− 3%) report having been arrested for a crime but that only 13% (+/− 3%) have been convicted of a crime.
Dr. Dowling is interviewed by a journalist about the findings of her study. The journalist asks Dr. Dowling how many people live in all five hospitals and Dr. Dowling answers. The journalist replies that given that there are only about 4,000 people, it seems reasonable that Dr. Dowling should have studied the entire population rather than just drawing a sample for her study to really tell us something about people suffering from mental illness. How should Dr. Dowling respond?

---

Definitions:

Elasticity of Demand

The elasticity of demand measures how responsive the quantity demanded of a good or service is to a change in its price, indicating the sensitivity of consumers to price changes.

Price Discrimination

A pricing strategy where identical or substantially similar goods or services are sold at different prices by the same provider in different markets or to different customers.

Natural Monopoly

A market condition in which a single firm can supply a product or service to an entire market at a lower cost than could two or more firms, often due to economies of scale.

Price Elasticity

The degree to which the quantity demanded of a good changes in response to a change in its price.