Epäedustavaa

Epäedustavaa is a Finnish adjective form meaning unrepresentative or not representative. It describes something that fails to adequately reflect or stand for the whole, such as data, a sample, an argument, or a depiction. The term is formed with the negative prefix ep- (epä-) attached to edustava, which comes from the verb edustaa, to represent. In Finnish, adjectives inflect for case and number; epäedustavaa is the partitive singular form, as in phrases like epäedustavaa otosta (an unrepresentative sample) or epäedustavaa kuvaa väestöstä (an unrepresentative image of the population).

Usage and nuance: Epäedustavaa is common in statistics, research methodology, journalism, and everyday language to flag a lack of representativeness or bias in representation. It often refers to sampling bias when a subset does not reflect the population, but can also describe arguments or portrayals that misrepresent underlying facts.

Related terms and contrasts: The antonym is edustava (representative). Related concepts include edustavuus (representativeness) and otanta (sampling). In statistical writing, more precise phrasing may be used to discuss representativeness and sampling bias.

See also:

- edustava

- edustavuus

- otanta

- tilastotiede

- otos

- sampling bias