Sociological Data

What are Statistics?

A set of procedures used by social scientist to organize, summarize, and communicate numerical information.

What is the research process?

A set of activities in which social scientists engage to answer questions, examine ideas, or test theories.

What is a theory

a set of assumptions and propositions used to explain, predict, and understand social phenomena

What is a variable?

a property of people or objects that takes on two or more values

What are three conditions required to establish causal relations?

Time order, correlation, non-spuriousness

nomial

Not numerical, and not able to be ranked, ie. gender

Ordinal

Not numerical, however it can be ranked, like class

Interval-ration

numerical: age or income

What is a population?

A total set of individuals being studied

What is a sample?

The cases selected from the population

How useful are descriptive statistics?

Very. They help us organize and describe data from a sample or population.

What are inferential statistics?

Data collected from observations and anaylsis of a sample

Empirical research

Research based on evidence that can be verified by using our direct experience

Unit of Analysis

the object of research, such as individuals, groups, organizations, or social artifacts

Dependant Variable

What is being measured

independent variable

variable that is manipulated

Dichotomous variable

a variable that has only two values

Discrete Variables

Variables that have a minimum-sized unit of measurement, which cannot be subdivided

continuous variable

Do not have a minimum sized unit of measurement; their range can be subdivided into increasingly smaller fractional values.

Cumulative Property

- variables that can be measured at the interval- ratio level of measurement can also be measured at the ordinal and nominal levels

- variables that are measured at the nominal and ordinal levels can't be measured at higher levels

Univariate

Describing a single characteristic

Bivariate

The relationship between two characteristics

Multivariate

Three+variables inwhich yoy add context and controlling factors

Descriptive Statistics

Summarizing the bounded sample

Inferential statistics

Projecting onto a population using probability sample

Bar charts

are appropriate for binary, nominal, and ordinal variables.

Pie Chart

are typically used only for binary variables and nominal variables with just a few categories, though they may at times make sense for ordinal variables with just a few categories.

Histogram

are used for continuous variables; there is an option to show the normal curve on the histogram, which can help users visualize the distribution more clearly