COURSE DESCRIPTION

 

This course is an introduction to descriptive and inferential statistics. It will introduce you to a wide variety of statistical techniques, including:

 

Descriptive Statistics and Measures of Association

 

Percentages, Percentage change, and Proportions

Ratios and Rates

Frequency Distributions

Charts and Graphs

Measures of Central Tendency (Mean, Median, & Mode, Percentiles, Quartiles)

Measures of Dispersion (IQV, Range, Interquartile Range, Standard Deviation)

Bivariate Association (Crosstabs)

Association Between Variables Measured at the Nominal Level (Chi-Square-Based

                  Measures, Lambda)

Association Between Variables Measured at the Ordinal Level (Gamma, Somer's d,

                  and Kendall's tau-b, Spearman's Rho)

Association Between Variables Measured at the Interval-Ratio Level (Regression and

                  Prediction, Correlation)

If time allows, the following will also be included:

Elaborating Bivariate Tables

Partial Correlation and Multiple Regression and Correlation

 

SPECIFIC LEARNING OBJECTIVES

 

By the end of the term, each student who has successfully completed the course will be competent to:

 

1)       go on to more advanced statistics courses

2)       better understand articles written in her or his field of interest having achieved basic statistical literacy

3)       understand the mathematics involved in doing statistical problems

4)       understand and interpret statistical output

5)       present statistical results in a form required for formal presentation or publication

6)       use statistics to think and reason logically about cause and effect relationships

7)       use statistics as tools to test hypotheses, analyze social processes, and evaluate social programs

 

BOOKS AND MATERIALS

 

Healey, Joseph. 2005. Statistics: A Tool for Social Research. 7^th edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Study Guide. 2005, 7^th edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Texas Instruments TI-36X Solar Calculator

 

COURSE SPECIFICS

 

Incompletes: I do not allow students to take an “Incomplete” for this course. If you do not believe you will be able to finish the course, you should withdraw early to get any refund of your tuition.

 

Homework. You are encouraged to use your calculator for computations. Do all of your homework in pencil to allow for corrections of errors. You will be given the answers to all of the problems. However, it is critical to your success in the course for you to do the work yourself before looking at the answers. If you copy the answers from the answer sheet, there is a high probability that you will fail the course.

 

Exams. There will be four exams during the course (see course outline for dates). Each exam will consist of 20 multiple-choice items and some statistics problems. For the exam, bring a calculator, a pencil, and your book to the exams. The exams will stress interpretation and understanding of statistical concepts. Make-ups of missed exams are granted only in the event of a documented medical problem, documented family emergency, or a conflicting college responsibility, such as a field trip.

 

The above schedule and procedures, and the online syllabus and course outline and reading list are subject to change in the event of extenuating circumstances.

 

ONLINE INFORMATION

 

All of the information you will need for the course is online at the following site: karendonahue.com

 

Read through the complete syllabus, and then click on each unit that corresponds to each week. There will be a link to chapter summaries, homework assignments, handouts, and homework keys with detailed answers to each problem.