Final answer:
The statement is false; a population represents the entire group of interest in a study, while a sample is a subset of the population.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that a population is a subset of a sample is false. In research terms, a population refers to the entire group of individuals or instances about whom we are interested in making conclusions. This could be the entire group of a certain species in a given area. A sample, on the other hand, is a subset of the population that is selected for the actual study, which could be due to constraints of time, cost, or accessibility.
For instance, if researchers are studying angelfish in an area of the ocean, the population would be all of the angelfish in that area, but they may only examine a sample, a smaller group, of these angelfish for practical reasons.