SOC202H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Univariate, Pie Chart, Ordinal Data
Document Summary
Sociology is an empirical discipline- rely upon data and draw on conclusions based on the collected data. Observable data is needed to evaluate claims about the world. Data can come in many forms- visual images, words people speak, things we try to measure. Quantitative data- information represented by numbers- is the specific type of evidence that we will focus on in this course. Note that there is nothing (cid:498)natural(cid:499) or (cid:498)perfect(cid:499) about quantitative data. (umans gather it, so it"s bound to be a flawed representation of the real world. Quantitative tools allow us to rigorously study in order to achieve conclusions. Statistics is simply a set of tools that eable us to organize and manipulate quantitative information- to test claims that are made. The big picture 2 types of statistical tools used. Describe some aspect of the world (univariate descriptive statistics) Taking one variable at a time and describe something of interest on the basis on that single variable.
