PSC 408—Basic Statistics for Social Science

This course is a gentle but thorough introduction to statistics, building towards understanding and using multiple regression, that assumes no particular mathematical training beyond high-school algebra. Using political science and social science examples and data, the course examines descriptive statistics, the logic of hypothesis testing, bivariate statistics (such as t-tests, correlation, and contingency tables), and regression analysis. Finally, the course finishes with an introduction to multivariate statistics. The labs will introduce students to statistical programs that graphically represent and analyze data, such as Excel and R. Upon the conclusion of this course, students should have an understanding of how different types of statistics can or cannot be used, and a mathematical understanding of the statistics applied in the real world. The goals of the course are for students to be better able to read current scholarship in political science and to be able to use statistics in their research papers throughout their university studies and in the professional world.