Course Overview and Objectives:
Whether we like it or not, statistics play a role in our lives. We may use them to describe a social phenomenon (i.e. “4 out of every 10 female headed families with children are in poverty”), to illustrate a relationship (“Regular smoking increases a person’s chances of developing lung cancer) or to predict some outcome ( “Children who have parents who are college educated, are likely to become college educated themselves). Statistics are all too often regarded as untrustworthy – a way to “lie”, however an argument that has a statistic behind it is easier to believe than one that does not. The public is bombarded with statistical information but usually not educated in how to understand them.
TThis class is geared toward making the student a better receiver of statistical information that we might come across (in the news media, for example,) as well as an educated producer of statistical analysis and interpretation in their own research. This course is an introduction to the world of statistics – what they mean, why they matter, and how we can use them in our research endeavors.
After this course is over, the student should be familiar with the following …
- the mechanics of basic descriptive and inferential statistics
- the basics of interpretation,
- the essentials of data analysis using SPSS
Required texts:
- Levin, Jack and James Alan Fox 2006. Elementary Statistics in Social Research Tenth Edition Boston: Pearson Education
- Green, Samuel B. and Neil J. Salkind 2005. Using Spss for Windows and Macintosh: Analyzing and Understanding Data Fourth Edition. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall
- Schroeder, Larry D., David L. Sjoquist and Paula E. Stephan. Understanding Regression Analysis: An Introductory Guide. Newbury Park : Sage Publications
Recommended Reading (Can be Found on Course Reserves)
Allison, Paul D. 1999. Multiple Regression: A Primer Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press
Book chapters from this text are available through library’s Course Reserves. Please go to the following website: http://alexandria.rice.edu/uhtbin/reserves/ and enter the course number (SOCI 298). The login and password to get the readings are as follows.
Username: soci298
Password: dytzuv2