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Lecturer

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School of Biological Sciences (Logo)


Course Summary This is a three or four day, introductory, course on the applications and effective use of the software package "Statistical Package for Social Sciences" (SPSS).

The course is an applied course, which highlights how SPSS can be used to facilitate the summarization and interpretation of information.

The course emphasizes a systematic problem solving approach over memorization, to both understand SPSS and information analysis.

The course is designed without pre-requirements, but assumes some familiarity with a computer.
   
Topics Covered The following topics will be covered during the course:
  • How to acquire information (sample strategies)
  • Entering information into SPSS
  • Reorganizing (recode) information in SPSS
  • Calculating (compute) variables
  • Summarizing information effectively through
    • Indexes
    • Tables
    • Charts
  • Understanding distributions and the shape of data
    • The Normal distribution
    • Deviations from Normality
  • Understand the theory behind inferential statistical techniques
    • The Sampling distribution
    • Confidence intervals
    • Hypothesis tests
  • Evaluating information
    • Questioning the strength of the sample
    • Achieving statistically sound (conclusions) inferences
    • Building a model of the world
  • Reporting research findings in a scientifically sound fashion
    • Editing SPSS output
    • Transferring SPSS output to MS Word