SOCIAL SCIENCE DATA ANALYSIS

SPRING 2014

SYA 3450COffice: 51/2219

David Jaffee, Professor of SociologyPh: 620-2215

email: mail:

Class Meets: T, Th 9:25-10:40Location: 51/1201

Office Hours: T&Th 11-12 and 1:45-3:00; W 10-11:30 and by arrangement

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to quantitative research methods and data analysis/statistical techniques. The course will prepare students to conduct basic forms of quantitative data analysis and the ability to formulate and test hypotheses. The material will be presented and learned in the context of sociological issues, problems, questions, and hypotheses. Contrary to rumor, this is not a math course.

WHAT WE WILL LEARN

When students complete this course they should be able to:

Translate issues of theoretical and/or practical sociological concerns into a systematic research design and empirical model

Develop testable hypotheses from theoretical material or observational data

Operationalize and measure concepts of interest

Select the appropriate statistical technique for the particular research question or hypothesis

Interpret the results of statistical analysis and determine statistical significance

Be conversant with basic statistical techniques from descriptive statistics to multiple regression

HOW WE WILL LEARN

Students will learn and develop these capacities by:

Hands-on analysis of quantitative data

Using a statistical software package - SPSS

Doing in-class and out-of-class exercises

Constructing hypotheses that will be tested with real data

This class is a learning community. Like all communities, there are norms that govern our behavior. The norms of the learning community are based on a professional academic ethos of academic integrity, honesty, reciprocity, mutual obligation, engagement, and intellectual curiosity. I will operate within this normative context and assume that all students will do likewise.

THERE ARE NO REQUIRED BOOKS FOR THIS CLASS

All necessary information and material will be provided/presented in class and/or online in Blackboard.All students should have a 2gb flash drive to download and save work and materials from the class.

EVALUATION

There are no “exams” in this class; only “learning assessments”. Students will be evaluated on the basis of assessment performance, the in-class completion of exercises/ assignments/presentation, and a final paper product.

Learning Assessment #1 15%

Learning Assessment #215%

Final Learning Assessment20%

Exercise/Assignments/Drafts20%

Final Draft Research Paper 30%

Please note that a significant percentage of your grade will be based on completion of in-class exercises and assignments. Many of these will be conducted in-class. In order to gain full credit for this portion of the course, you must attend class.

Students with special needs: Students with disabilities who seek reasonable accommodations in the classroom or other aspects of performing their coursework must first register with the UNF Disability Resource Center (DRC) located in Building 57, Room 1500. DRC staff members work with students to obtain required documentation of disability and to identify appropriate accommodations as required by applicable disability laws including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). After receiving all necessary documentation, the DRC staff determines whether a student qualifies for services with the DRC and if so, the accommodations the student requires will be provided.

DRC staff then prepares a letter for the student to provide faculty advising them of approved accommodations. For further information, contact the DRC by phone (904) 620-2769, or visit the DRC website ( Military and veteran students who return from combat exposure may be utilizing the post 9/11 GI bill to continue postsecondary education goals and may need both physical and academic accommodations. Contact the Director of Military and Veterans’ Resource Center by phone (904) 620-2655 or visit the MVRC website

SCHEDULE

DATE / TOPIC / ASSIGNMENT
1: Jan 7-9 / The Research Process – Conceptualization / In-class exercises
2: Jan 14-16 / The Research Process -
Coding/Operationalization / In-class exercises
3: Jan 21-23 / The Research Process -
Variables and Measurement / In-class exercises
Jan21: Research Question/Topic/Intro
4: Jan 28-30 / Descriptive Univariate Statistics / In-class exercises
5: Feb 4 / Descriptive Univariate Statistics
Assessment 1 Feb 6 / In-class exercises
6: Feb 11-13 / Descriptive Univariate Statistics / Feb 11: Lit Review
7: Feb 18-20 / Bivariate Statistics – Nominal Level and Ordinal Level Variables / In-class exercises
8: Feb 25 -27 / Bivariate Statistics – Nominal Level and Ordinal Level Variables / Feb 25: Hypotheses, Data and Methods
In-class exercises
9: March 4-6 / Assessment2 March 4 / In-class exercises
10: March 11-13 / Bivariate Statistics – Nominal Independent and Interval Dependent / In-class exercises
11: SPRING BREAK
12: March 25-27 / Bivariate Statistics – Interval Independent and Dependent: Correlation and Regression / In-class exercises
13: April 1-3 / Multiple Regression / In-class exercises
14: April 8-10 / In-Class Data Analysis for Project
15: April 15-17 / In-Class Data Analysis for Project / April 15: Data Analysis and Results
Exam Week / Final Learning Assessment #3
Final Draft Due

In the event of disruption of normal classroom activities due to an emergency such as hurricane, pandemic or other unforeseen event or combination of events, the format of this course may be modified in order to enable completion of the course requirements. In that event, you will be provided an addendum to this syllabus that will supersede this version. It is your responsibility as a student participant to be proactive during any emergency to find instructions that I will email and/or place in Blackboard.