Answer:
What is Point Estimate?
Statistical analysis allows researchers and statisticians to make statistical inferences or generalizations. Researchers often use samples to represent larger populations in order to determine whether any observed differences between groups represent a meaningful or real-world effect. However, understanding the characteristics of a particular population is critical in determining whether a particular research finding from a sample can be generalized to the population at large. This is where the concept of point estimation comes into practice.
There is an important distinction between samples and populations. Researchers and statisticians also use specific terminology to differentiate the characteristics of a sample and population.
Population: The group to which the results of a study are being generalized.
Sample: A small collection of people that are thought to be representative of the population of interest.
Parameter: A characteristic of the population that is represented by a numerical value.
Statistic: A characteristic of the sample that is represented by a numerical value.
What is a point estimate? A point estimate definition is a calculation where a sample statistic is used to estimate or approximate an unknown population parameter. For example, the average height of a random sample can be used to estimate the average height of a larger population.
Point estimate statistics are useful because researchers rarely know certain population parameters. For example, the GPAs of all college students at a particular educational institution are known because the administrators of that institution keep records of that data. In this case, researchers that want to investigate something that they think might influence student GPA would have access to that particular population parameter. However, it's more often the case that the population parameters are unknown. This is especially true when large populations are being studied, such as the population of an entire country. In these instances, researchers have various methods of estimating population parameters to help them make statistical inferences.
