POLSCI 3NN3 Chapter 5: 3NN3 - ASSIGNED READING - WEEK SIX- INTRO TO INFERENTIAL STATS

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLSCI 3NN3
• Professor: Todd Alway

Document Summary

Population = parameters: two applications of inferential stats. Estimation procedures - guessing characteristics of population parameters based on sample outcomes: hypothesis testing - validity of hypothesis of population tested against sample outcomes. Stratified: cluster, simple random sample requires, list of all cases in a population, system for selecting cases from the list. Tables of random numbers commonly used: how to use table of random numbers, assign each case a unique id number, chose a number from the table, select a case when a number from table matches id numbers. Ignore id repeats: stop selecting when you"ve reached desired number of cases, epsem can occasionally present inaccurate picture of population, inferential statistics allows researchers to estimate probability error. Empirical; known: a sample"s variable is known through shape, central tendency, and dispersion, the population distribution. Taking infinite number of samples from a population of a normally distributed variable (across the population) will results in a normal sampling distribution.