1.1 Population: The population is not explicitly defined. From the context of the problem, we might assume it to be all American adults. However, as a phone survey, the population might be more appropriately defined as American adults with telephones. Sample: The sample is the 1500 randomly selected American adults who were called in this research poll.

1.2 This is an observational study. The researcher examined student comments, but no treatment was applied to the students.