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Wed 12 Oct, Wed 19 Oct, ... Wed 2 Nov 2011
14:00 - 16:00

Venue: Titan Teaching Room 2

Provided by: Joint Schools' Social Sciences


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Module 1: Foundations in Statistics (Series 3)

Wed 12 Oct, Wed 19 Oct, ... Wed 2 Nov 2011

Description

This module is part of the Social Science Research Methods Course programme which is a shared platform for providing research students with a broad range of quantitative and qualitative research methods skills that are relevant across the social sciences.

This foundational course is for eligible graduate students who have no prior training in statistics.

It introduces students to the basic general concepts that underlie descriptive and inferential statistics. It is divided into 4 sessions:

  • Session 1: Variables and Measurement
  • Session 2: Describing a Variable
  • Session 3: Populations and Samples
  • Session 4: Statistical Models and Significance Tests
Target audience

Mphil Students from participating departments taking the Social Science Research Methods Course as part of their research degree

Prerequisites
  • You must be a complete beginners in statistics and are eligible to attend this course
  • You must have a PWF username and password
  • You must have a CamTools
Sessions

Number of sessions: 4

# Date Time Venue Trainer
1 Wed 12 Oct 2011   14:00 - 16:00 14:00 - 16:00 Titan Teaching Room 2 A. Sutherland
2 Wed 19 Oct 2011   14:00 - 16:00 14:00 - 16:00 Titan Teaching Room 2 A. Sutherland
3 Wed 26 Oct 2011   14:00 - 16:00 14:00 - 16:00 Titan Teaching Room 2 A. Sutherland
4 Wed 2 Nov 2011   14:00 - 16:00 14:00 - 16:00 Titan Teaching Room 2 A. Sutherland
Topics covered
  • Session 1: The notion of variables and how they are measured
  • Session 2: Ways of describing the central tendency and the dispersion of a variable
  • Session 3: The basic idea of sampling and statistical inference
  • Session 4: Principles of hypothesis testing and statistical significance
Format

Presentations, demonstrations and practicals

Taught using

SPSS v. 16 on PWF Windows

Assessment

3 Exercises

Textbook(s)

Throughout all introductory statistics modules the main textbook is:

  • Field, Andy (2009), Discovering Statistics using SPSS. London:Sage

This course comprises the topics covered in Chps. 1 & 2 in Field (2009)

Other reading

The textbook by Field (2009) discusses all themes that are covered by this course. Most other introductory statistics textbooks have similar introductory chapters. Three useful textbooks that provide more detailed coverage of the essential basics of statistics are:

  • Howell, David C. (2007), Statistical Methods for Psychology. Belmont: Wadsworth (chapters 1 through 5)
  • Levin, Jack and James Alan Fox (2003), Elementary Statistics in Social Research, Boston: Pearson (chapters 1 through 6)
  • Smithson, Michael (2000), Statistics with Confidence, London:Sage (chapters 1 through 6)
Notes
  • To gain the maximum benefits from the course it is important that students do not see this course in isolation from the other MPhil courses or research training they are taking. Responsibility lies with each student to consider the potential for their own research using methods common in fields of the social sciences that may seem remote. Ideally this task will be facilitated by integration of the SSRMC with discipline-specific courses in their departments and through reading and discussion.
Duration

4 sessions of two hours

Frequency

Yearly

Theme
Foundations in Statistics

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