Understanding Social Statistics

Social statistics appear routinely not just in articles in academic journals but also those in newspapers and popular magazines. Statistics are often cited and accepted as "factual" evidence or "empirical" support for a particular opinion or policy. But statistics can be used and abused. This course aims to develop a working understanding of social statistics, focusing on basic statistical concepts, the logic of statistical reasoning in social research, the foundations of statistical inference and hypothesis testing, and the generation and interpretation of statistical data. Students also learn to use a statistical software package for social research.