POLSCI 3N06 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Standard Deviation, Standard Score, Central Limit Theorem

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLSCI 3N06
• Professor: Todd Alway

Document Summary

Political science 3n06 semester ii 2016: lecture 5a confidence intervals. We can use sample statistics to estimate population parameters by using the properties of the sampling distribution. Point estimates require you to simply use your sample statistic as your estimate of the population parameter. However, you know that your sample mean or sample proportion is unlikely to be exactly the same as your population mean or population proportion. A confidence interval contains a point estimate. However, it bounds that point inside of a range (or interval) The size of the interval is a product of the confidence level that you are aiming at. The more confident you want to be: the larger the interval will be, the smaller the interval will be. The less confident you want to be reasonable size. But it is a bit of a trade off. But you can be more precise in your estimate. Lowering your confidence level shrinks the confidence interval down to a.