Introduction to Social Research & Analysis

SOC 200

Central Michigan University

Fall, 2009

Dr. Mary S. Senter

312B Anspach Hall
Telephone: 989-774-2336

Office Hours:  Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:30-5:00 p.m.; other times by appointment
E-mail: Mary.Senter@CMich.edu
 

Check display case in the hall between AN 251 and AN 252 for OPEN HOURS for Computer Labs in Anspach Hall

Contents: 

    Course Requirements

• Introduction to the Course
• Course Outline

• Assignments:  #1 (due 9/1), #2 (due 9/8), #3 (due 9/16); #4 (due 9/22), #5 (due 9/30),

#6 (due 10/7), #7 (due 10/14), #8 (due 11/3), #9 (due 11/13), #10 (due 11/30), #11 (due 12/11)

       Course Aides

• Datasets, Codebooks, SPSS Review (from textbook webpage)
• Review of Math and Simple Statistics
• Study Guides:  Exam #1 (9/24); Exam #2 (10/22), Exam #3 (11/19), Exam #4 (12/8)
• Practice on Independent/Dependent Variables, Units of Analysis, Level of Measurement
• Practice on Measures of Central Tendency and Measures of Dispersion (Variability)
• Practice on Percentage Change and Percentage-Point Change
• Practice on Sampling
• Practice on Bivariate Analysis
• Practice on Multivariate Analysis
• Practice Calculating Chi-Square by Hand
• Practice on Measures of Association

    Reference Material

• Introduction to SPSS (includes some changes from version 15.0)
• On-line tutorial on SPSS:  http://calcnet.cst.cmich.edu/org/spss/
• Introduction to EXCEL (Windows 2007)
• Tables   (Rules for creating tables; examples of a univariate, bivariate and a multivariate crosstabulation)
• Understanding Chi-Square
• My SOC 200 Alphabet

    Material for Class Discussion or Assignments

• Letter to the editor:  Science and Non-science
• Link to Tearoom Trade Study:  The ethics of social research