Sociology 2205A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Univariate, Scatter Plot, Birth Rate
15 Oct 2018
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Key ideas: role of statistics, types of measurement: nominal, ordinal, ir variables (categorical versus continuous) What is statistics and their role in sociology: a set of mathematical tools for organizing and analyzing data, scientific inquiry in sociology is theory-driven, theory: a (rather general/broad) statement about how particular facts or phenomena are related. From theories, we derive hypotheses: a (more specific) statement or prediction about the relationship between variables: does x cause y, x is referred to as independent variable, y is referred to as dependent variable. To test hypotheses, we gather data and analyze it where statistics becomes indispensable: variable: a characteristic that varies across cases (ex. question in questionnaire) Types of variables (not really needed: in probability and mathematical statistics, the following typology of variables is important: Continuous: can take on infinitely many possible values: often obtained by taking a measurement by perhaps a stop watch, ex. time, age, height.
