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SOCY 2061 Introduction to Social Statistics

Seth Wright

This course is an introduction to descriptive and inferential statistics. You will learn techniques for summarizing data, examining relationships among variables, generalizing from samples to populations, and testing statistical hypotheses.

Familiarity with statistics is important for the informed citizen because many social policy debates center on the use of statistical information. Statistical skills are also a necessary tool for those interested in social research, an increasingly important source of employment opportunities for social science majors.

Upon completing the course, students will be able to:
1. Identify and calculate the most appropriate measures of central tendency and variability for a given set of data (i.e. familiarity with descriptive statistics).
2.  Describe the basic theory of sampling and probability distributions.
3. Test whether differences between social groups exist within a population based on a sample.
4. Analyze whether relationships exist between sociological variables (such as education and income).
5. Complete and interpret the results of statistical regression analyses (the most common advanced statistical technique used in sociology).

Levin, Jack, James Alan Fox, and David R. Forde.  2014. Elementary Statistics in Social Research. 12th ed. New York City: Pearson Education.  ISBN-13: 978-0-2058-4548-4.

Homework problems and a quiz are assigned each week.

Quizzes (12 of 14) 1200 points (100 points each)
Problem Sets (13) 1300 points (100 points each)
Total 2500 points
