Apr 17, 2024  
2019-2020 Course Catalog 
    
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2019-2020 Course Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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SOC 2991 - Data Analysis for the Social Sciences

Credits: 4
Hours/Week: Lecture None Lab None
Course Description: This course is one of two courses intended to prepare students to gather and analyze social and behavioral science data. It will introduce students to the methods of data analysis social scientists use to understand social relationships and interactions, social structure, and culture, with a particular focus on opinion polls and surveys. Students will be introduced to the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software.
MnTC Goals
None

Prerequisite(s): ENGL 1020   with a grade of C or higher OR ENGL 1021  with a grade of C or higher;  placement into MATH 1025  or above, or completion of MATH 0070  with a grade of C or higher; or consent of instructor.
Corequisite(s): None
Recommendation: None

Major Content
  1. Analysis of social science data using descriptive statistics
  2. Analysis of social science data using inferential statistics
  3. Critical evaluation of popular culture and political uses of opinion polls and surveys
  4. Design of questions for opinion polls and surveys exhaustiveness and mutual exclusivity
  5. Ethical issues in data analysis in the social sciences
  6. Independent and dependent variables
  7. Interpretation of social science data using confidence intervals
  8. Introduction to SPSS
  9. Levels of measurement
  10. Measurement of social variable correlation using regression techniques
  11. Organization and presentation of social science data
  12. Purposes of data analysis in the social sciences
  13. Review of sociological theories in social research
  14. Social science polls and surveys
  15. Use of SPSS to analyze survey data

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this course students will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate proficiency with SPSS software.
  2. Outline the central ethical issues social scientists confront in data analysis
  3. Construct questions for opinion polls and surveys.
  4. Compute descriptive and inferential statistics, linear regression and correlation techniques, and confidence intervals.
  5. Analyze social science data in order to answer social research questions.
  6. Demonstrate familiarity with a number of social science surveys
  7. Organize survey data, e.g., using frequency distributions, graphs, and tables.
  8. Apply functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist theories in the interpretation of social science data.
  9. Answer questions about the social world (including but not limited to issues of crime, poverty, social class, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, education, and politics) based on data from opinion polls and surveys.
  10. Evaluate data from opinion polls and surveys.

Competency 1 (1-6)
None
Competency 2 (7-10)
None


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