CRI350H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Sampling Error, Statistic, Statistical Parameter
Document Summary
Population all cases in the group to which you want to generalize. Population element a single member of the population. Sampling the selection of population elements (or cases) from the population. Sampling is important bc the way you choose your population elements affect the inferences you can make generalizations about the larger population. The inferences you can draw from a study based on a probability sample are diff from the inferences you can draw from a study based on a non probability sample. Allow you to draw conclusions about the population of interest from a sample selected from that population. Allow you to generalize the results from an analysis of a sample to the larger population of interest if your sample is representative of that population. Note inferential stats assume there is always some sampling error. Express probabilities & allow for a margin of error in your inferences bc. What, though, is sampling error? you haven"t studied the entire population.
