POLS 3650 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Probability Theory, Empirical Probability, Frequency Distribution
1 Feb 2017
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Quiz: covers lectures 1-3, chapters 1-6 of textbook, online 12-8, 30 minutes to complete it, 15 multiple choice questions, 5% of final grade. Overview: why care about probability theory, chances and probabilities, theoretical and empirical probabilities, the probability of one event and another, the probability of one event or another. Independence vs. dependent events: mutually exclusive vs. non-mutually exclusive events, discrete and continuous probabilities. Why care about probability theory: therefore, we can use probability theory to calculate how likely it is that our sample. In a random sample, each case has an equal chance of being selected represents the population. Inferential statistics calculations aimed at generalizing findings from our sample to the population. Chances and probabilities: probability number between 0 and 1, 0 is certainty it will not occur; 1 is certainty it will occur. Theoretical and empirical probabilities: theoretical probability probability calculated on the basis of theory.
