Dr Benjamin Lauderdale Col.8.10 and Prof Jonathan Jackson Col.8.05

The course is available to all research students.

An intensive introduction to quantitative data analysis in the social sciences. The course is intended for students with no previous experience of quantitative methods or statistics. It covers the foundations of descriptive statistics and statistical estimation and inference. At the end of the course students should be able to carry out univariate and bi-variate data analysis and have an appreciation of multiple linear regression. The computer classes give hands-on training in the application of statistical techniques to real social science research problems using the SPSS computer package (no prior knowledge of SPSS is necessary).

20 hours of lectures and 9 hours of computer workshops in the MT. 20 hours of lectures and 9 hours of computer workshops in the LT. 2 hours of lectures in the ST.

There will be no lectures or computer classes in Week 6 of the term.

This course is given twice per session, starting in the first week of each of the MT and LT. Students must either register for MY551M which is taught in Michaelmas Term, or MY551L which is taught in Lent Term.

Exercises from the weekly computer classes can be submitted for feedback.

A course pack will be available for download online and can be purchases as a hard copy. Additional reading: many introductory statistics books are available. But we particularly recommend Alan Agresti and Christine Franklin (2009) Statistics: The Art and Science of Learning from Data. Pearson Education. Or Alan Agresti and Barbara Finlay (2009, 4th edition) Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences. Pearson Education (note that the second book is more advanced and is particularly useful if you are planning to take MY551 and MY552).

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.