trip to the zoo
Methods of Sociological and Social Services Research II (Soc 4112)
Winter, 2014
Instructor: Dr. Will Johnson, office: MI 3088 e-mail: will.johnson@csueastbay.edu
The class will meet Mon. – Wed., 8:40 – 10:30 a.m. in Valley Bus. & Tec. Rm. 221.
Office hours: Wednesday, 1:00-2:00 p.m., MI 3088.
Course Overview
This course introduces you to basic quantitative research skills. If you succeed in this course you will have the skills you need to: (a) Acquire sociological and social services data, (b) enter data into SPSS, (c) determine the appropriate statistical method to use to test hypotheses, (c) conduct and interpret a variety of statistical tests, and (d) write a quantitative research report.
Course Goals
In this course you will learn:
1. the language of quantitative research (vocabulary, concepts).
2. how to use statistical software and datasets.
3. the distinction between descriptive and inferential statistics.
4. hypothesis testing
5. how to choose an appropriate statistical test.
6. how to conduct and interpret statistical tests [i.e., cross tabs with chi-square, difference of means tests (t-tests)].
7. how to write a quantitative research report.
A note on statistical software & datasets:
SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) is a software package that allows us to conduct statistical tests on data. Most of you will not have SPSS on your home computer because you will find, with a little investigation, that it costs more money than you will want to spend for a single quarter course in quantitative analysis. Thus, you need to set aside time to be on campus to complete the SPSS portions of assignments. All computer labs on campus have SPSS.
Using SPSS you will work with three datasets. They are the following:
1. We will use the GSS (General Social Survey) 2006 dataset, which will be supplied to you through BB. This dataset contains the results of a survey. We will use GSS 2006 data for the
Winter, 2014
Instructor: Dr. Will Johnson, office: MI 3088 e-mail: will.johnson@csueastbay.edu
The class will meet Mon. – Wed., 8:40 – 10:30 a.m. in Valley Bus. & Tec. Rm. 221.
Office hours: Wednesday, 1:00-2:00 p.m., MI 3088.
Course Overview
This course introduces you to basic quantitative research skills. If you succeed in this course you will have the skills you need to: (a) Acquire sociological and social services data, (b) enter data into SPSS, (c) determine the appropriate statistical method to use to test hypotheses, (c) conduct and interpret a variety of statistical tests, and (d) write a quantitative research report.
Course Goals
In this course you will learn:
1. the language of quantitative research (vocabulary, concepts).
2. how to use statistical software and datasets.
3. the distinction between descriptive and inferential statistics.
4. hypothesis testing
5. how to choose an appropriate statistical test.
6. how to conduct and interpret statistical tests [i.e., cross tabs with chi-square, difference of means tests (t-tests)].
7. how to write a quantitative research report.
A note on statistical software & datasets:
SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) is a software package that allows us to conduct statistical tests on data. Most of you will not have SPSS on your home computer because you will find, with a little investigation, that it costs more money than you will want to spend for a single quarter course in quantitative analysis. Thus, you need to set aside time to be on campus to complete the SPSS portions of assignments. All computer labs on campus have SPSS.
Using SPSS you will work with three datasets. They are the following:
1. We will use the GSS (General Social Survey) 2006 dataset, which will be supplied to you through BB. This dataset contains the results of a survey. We will use GSS 2006 data for the