Foundations in Applied Statistics (Series 4)

BeginnersPrerequisites

This module is part of the Social Science Research Methods Centre training 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. Topics covered include the notion of variables and how they are measured; ways of describing the central tendency and dispersion of a variable; basic idea of sampling and statistical inference; and principles of hypothesis testing and statistical significance.

• Mphil and PhD students from participating departments taking the Social Science Research Methods Course as part of their research degree

• You must be a complete beginner in statistics and are eligible to attend this course
• You must have a University Information Services (Computing) Desktop Services password (http://www.ucs.cam.ac.uk/linkpages/newcomers)
• You must have access to CamTools

Number of sessions: 4

• 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

Presentations, demonstrations and practicals

SPSS on MCS

• One online assessment [optional, dependent upon department]

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)

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 providing 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)

• To gain 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.

Four sessions of two hours.

Once a week for four weeks.