POLSCI 3NN3 Lecture 11: FEB 9 - CONFIDENCE INTERVALS
14 Feb 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Infer about asking questions about big things based on the what is seen in the small things (sample) Inference stats makes inference: = m, shape normal. We can use sample statistics to estimate population parameters by using the properties of the sampling distribution: confidence intervals based upon idea of looking at sample distributions and linking it population distributions by using sampling distributions. Point estimates require you to simply use your sample statistic as your estimate of the population parameter: equating the one point from the one sample to the population, not very useful alone. 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.
