Charles is a sociologist studying a population of gay fathers in the United States. He interviews 200 men in his data collection. These 200 men constitute what researchers call a

sample

Explanation:

Statistically, a sample refers to a part of a population that is used to depict the entire population. It is a very important step while conducting research on the human mind or behavior, as it is unrealistic to interview every individual of a specific population because the number of individuals is simply too high. And therefore they pick a smaller set of individuals representing the larger population so that generalization can be made about the wider population.