SOC 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Sampling Distribution, Standard Score, Point Estimation
Document Summary
Review from last class: central limit theorem. As n increases, the mean of the sampling distribution approaches the population mean and the standard error of the mean decreases. The variability in the sample estimates decreases as n increases. Even if the population distribution is skewed, we know that the sampling distribution of the mean is normally distributed: chapter 8: Researchers don"t typically conduct repeated samples of same population; use knowledge of theoretical sampling distributions to construct con dence intervals around estimates. Estimation= a process whereby we select a random sample from a population and use a sample statistic to estimate a population parameter: estimations lead to inferences. Point estimate= a sample statistic used to estimate the value of the populate parameter (aka. Parameter estimate : ***remember=sample statistics still don"t equal population parameters. Sample statistics are our best estimate of our population parameters. Con dence interval=range of values within which the population parameter estimated to fall.
