Recently, statistics have been attracting attention with emergence of big data. This is because we need statistical knowledge and sense to analyze data on people or society. This course focuses the basic concepts of statistics (descriptive statistics, correlation, test, estimation, etc.), and shows some applications of statistics in the social science.
Through this course, students learn the basic concepts of statistics and nurture the ability to tackle social issues with them.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
1) Understand the basics of statistics.
2) Understand nature of statistical methods (descriptive statistics, correlation, causal inference).
3) Understand how apply statistics to the social sciences.
descriptive statistics, cross tabulation, correlation, spurious correlation, causal inference, social survey
✔ Specialist skills | ✔ Intercultural skills | Communication skills | ✔ Critical thinking skills | ✔ Practical and/or problem-solving skills |
The instructor will lecture about basic statistics based on the textbook. Students should solve some problems and submit their answers at the end of each class. At the end of term, students must submit the final report.
Course schedule | Required learning | |
---|---|---|
Class 1 | Introduction: statistics in social science | Understand the idea of statistics through some applications of statistics in the social science. |
Class 2 | Collect data: social survey | Understand how social surveys collect data. |
Class 3 | Summarize data: descriptive statistics | Understand descriptive statistics. |
Class 4 | Caputure relationships: cross tabulation and correlation | Understand cross tabulation and correlation. |
Class 5 | Control variables: spurious correlation | Understand sprious correlation and controlling variables. |
Class 6 | Causal Inference in Statistics | Understand Causal Inference in Statistics. |
Class 7 | Future of statistics | Consider the applicability of statistics. |
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
I will give out lecture materials at every class.
Course materials will be specified by the instructor.
Students’ course scores are based on class reports 30% and the final report 70%.
Nothing required.