Question

. if a researcher is concerned that a standard error is too big for the sample mean to provide a reliable measure of the population mean what can the researcher do

Answer 1

Standard Error (SE) for the sample mean is given by:

,

where

s = SD of the sample

n = Sample Size

So, in order to reduce the Standard Error too provide a reliable measure of the population mean, the researcher can to the following:

(i) Increase the Sample Size (n). The more observations we have, the narrower the interval around the sample statistic is.

(ii) Reduce the variability, as given by Standard Deviation (s). The less that the data varies, the more precisely we can estimate the population parameter.