Quantitative Methods in Social Research

Catalog description

Introduction to basic statistical methods and their application to social science research focusing on gender issues. Students will have the opportunity to learn how to conduct basic statistical analyses and apply them to research topics such as gender and global health, maternal health, gender and global development, and contemporary democratization and women. In addition, students will acquire knowledge of how to extract data from existing databases as well as be guided in the collection of their own empirical data. Two types of statistical analyses will be used to assess samples of data: a broad range of descriptive statistics, and correlation and regressions models. This course is a hands-on experience and is held in a computer lab; therefore, students will have a good opportunity to become skilled and experienced in understanding and conducting basic statistical research. This course will also teach students how to interpret published empirical papers that use quantitative research methods. We will be learning applications through the use of the SPSS and ActivStats programs. This course is dual-listed with GGS 709.