Sociology 3306A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Statistical Inference, Social Theory
22 Nov 2017
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Looking at the world, get the idea and then generate the theory is deduction. Wo(cid:374)"t ask what a theor(cid:455) is o(cid:374) e(cid:454)a(cid:373) Social theory determines whether something is good or bad. A population is the entire set of all units constituting a particular collection of units of that type, also called a universe. In social science research, the units often are people, such as adults in the united states, or aggregations of people, such as neighborhoods in a city. Samples are used as surrogates for populations in the same manner that measured variables stand in for constructs and associations serve as proxies for relationships. Bigger the sample the better but need to keep in mind cost and time efficiency. Difference between the two variables in called a parameter (ex. Inferential statistics allows one to infer if indeed the sample is representative of the population the way you choose a sample is very important.
