Satoru SHIMOKAWA, SOSC1100, Fall 2012
SOSC1100 Elementary Statistics for Social Research
Fall 2012
Lectures: Tue and Thu, 13:00-14:50 / Rm. 2407, Academic Building (Lift 25-26)
Course Website: http://lmes2.ust.hk
INSTRUCTOR: SHIMOKAWA, Satoru
OFFICE: 3363 Academic Building
EMAIL: sosatoru@ust.hk
OFFICE HOURS: Thursdays, 3:00pm – 5:00pm
INSTRUCTIONAL ASSISTANT: Stephen Choy
OFFICE: 3001 Academic Building
EMAIL: choyho@ust.hk
OFFICE HOURS: TBA
1. Course Description:
This course aims to help students to learn how to design and conduct a statistical analysis to explore
an important social issue by connecting between theory, survey, and data analysis. Students gain
hands-on experience of statistical analysis by designing how to analyze real social survey data by
themselves.
The course consists of two parts, a lecture part and a group project part. The lecture part emphasizes
the acquisition of basic statistics including survey methods, descriptive statistics, point and interval
estimation, testing hypotheses, analysis of variance, and regression analysis. For a group project part,
a group conducts a statistical analysis using actual survey data; present about the analysis in a class;
and submit a written report for the group project. There are also assignments, a mid-term exam and a
final exam on related subjects.
The course website listed above will provide most course materials such as PPT slides, lecture notes,
assignments, exercises and links to other learning resources. You may use your ITSC username and
password to log in. All copyrights, however, are reserved. If you need further assistance for the
course (e.g., questions about assignments), you are very welcome to use our office hours.
2. Course Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs):
1) Develop more confidence and appreciation in using basic statistics to describe and clarify
apparently unclear relationships among socioeconomic factors.
2) Learn how to design and conduct a statistical analysis in the social sciences by connecting
between theory, survey, and data analysis.
3) Use a statistical software effectively for managing and analyzing socioeconomic data and
presenting outcomes in a reader friendly way.
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Satoru SHIMOKAWA, SOSC1100, Fall 2012
3. Teaching and Learning Activities (TLAs)
1) Lectures in class
2) Assignments
3) Group Research Project




Through lectures (TLA 1), students learn about basic statistical reasoning and tools, and how to
apply them in an actual statistical analysis (ILO 2).
Assignments (TLA 2) provide the opportunity for students to reconfirm the concepts that they
learn in a class and to practice how to use SPSS (ILOs 2 & 3).
The knowledge and skills acquired through LTAs 1 & 3 will be fundamental to conduct a
research project.
A group research project (TLA 3) is aligned with all ILOs 1, 2 & 3.
4. Assessment Tasks and Activities (ATAs)
ATAs
Weighting
1) Class Participation
5%
2) Assignments
15%
3) Mid-term Exam
20%
4) Final Exam
30%
5) Group Presentation
10%
6) Group Project Report
20%
4.1 Class Participation (5%)
 The prerequisite for class participation is attendance. (There is NO score for attendance in this
course.) So, please do come to class and be ON TIME.
 Your participation score will be determined by the quality and quantity of issues raised by you,
your responses in class, and the efforts on in-class quizzes.
4.2 Individual Assignments (15%)
 There will be three written take home assignments. Individual assignments include short and long
answers.
 The assignment is to be completed on an individual basis. You should not collaborate with other
students in any way to complete the assignment.
 Assignment should be submitted to our TA in class on the due date. Late submission will NOT
be accepted.
4.3 & 4.4 Mid-term Exam (20%) and Final Exam (30%)
 Exams are cumulative and closed book.
 The exams include multiple choice questions, simple computations, and short answers. You are
responsible for all materials presented in lectures, required readings, and extra readings
distributed.
 There will be NO make-up test in this course. This means that if you miss the test, you will
simply lose the number of points associated with it. Your grade will therefore be computed as if
that particular entry was a zero. The only exceptions to this are validated medical excuses. Such
excuses must be in the form of a written note from your doctor, attesting to the fact that on the
day of the test you were too ill to attend the test. All medical excuses must be personally
presented to the professor as soon as you are able to return to class for a make-up to be scheduled.
The make-up test consists of long essay questions.
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Satoru SHIMOKAWA, SOSC1100, Fall 2012
4.5 & 4.6 Group Presentation (10%) and Group Project Report (20%)
 Group works will start after the mid-term exam.
 Students are to form groups of 4–7 people to complete the group project. Please submit the group
membership form (one per group) to our TA by the beginning of Week 9.
 Each group will develop a research question and an analytical strategy based on available survey
data. The data will be provided by the instructor.
 MANDATORY MEETING in Week 12: To facilitate your preparation of the presentation, I will
meet with each group to go over its blueprint. Each group is to summarize its discussion using
the 2-page working template attached to this syllabus. Submit the completed working template by
the end of Week 11.
 Peer Evaluations: Students will be asked to evaluate fellow group members in terms of their
individual contribution to the accomplishment of the group project. I will adjust each person's
individual grade for the group project on the basis of the peer evaluations from his or her group.
A peer evaluation form is attached to this syllabus for your reference.
Group Presentation
 Each group will be given 10 minutes to make a presentation.
 Each group must prepare PowerPoint slides for the presentation.
 Each group will be assigned for a critique on one presentation. The critique group is
responsible for starting off the Q&A session right after a presentation.
Group Project Report
 The written report should include the following sections:
i.
Title Page (Title of the study, a group name, and group member names)
ii. Introduction (Overview, Background, Motivation and etc.)
iii. Empirical Analysis (Hypotheses, How to test the hypotheses, Variables and etc.)
iv.
Empirical Results (Present and interpret results)
v. Conclusions
vi.
References (if any)
vii.
Appendices (if any)
 All submitted work has to be typed, double-spaced pages, and one-inch margins (use Time
New Roman 12pt).
 Page Limit: up to 10 pages including text, tables, figures, references, and appendices.
 Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. All material submitted must be your own original
work. Any material not completely original must be credited to the proper source.
 All submitted work has to be proofed for spelling and grammatical errors.
 Deadline: Each group must e-mail a soft copy to the instructor (sosatoru@ust.hk) by 5pm
Dec 8, 2012.
 Late submission will NOT be accepted.
5. Learning Materials:
There is no required textbook. All essential materials will be covered in lecture notes.
Recommended readings:
 Adler, E., S., & Clark, R. 2008. How it’s done: An invitation to social research
 Hinton, P. 2004. Statistics Explained: A Guide for Social Science Students.
Software
We will use R (free statistical software) in this course. Excel can be an alternative. To download R,
please go to CRAN. Check the following video to see how to install the latest version of R. Please
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Satoru SHIMOKAWA, SOSC1100, Fall 2012
check only the beginning and ignore the rest e.g., how to install packages. For this course, you do not
need to install any additional package.
You can learn how to conduct elementary statistics with R at the following link.
Elementary Statistics with R
http://www.r-tutor.com/elementary-statistics
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Satoru SHIMOKAWA, SOSC1100, Fall 2012
6. Course Outlines [Tentative]:
Date
Topic
Week 1
Sep 11
Introduction
The Role of Social Science

Ex. Promoting the use of oral rehydration salts for
diarrhea children in India.
The Role of Statistics in the Social Sciences

Awareness Tests.

Scientific Methods and Its Strength

Exploratory, Descriptive and Explanatory Research.
Theory and Research

Deductive and Inductive reasoning.

Ex. Volunteer after retirement (role theory)

Ex. Unmasking racism and Halloween costuming.
Research Design & Study Design Choices

Connecting between the Uses of Research, Theory and
Study Design.

Cross-sectional, longitudinal, and case study designs.

Ex. Investing Adulthoods: A Qualitative Longitudinal
Study of Youth Transitions.
Measurement

Conceptualization and Operationalization.

Quality of Measurement.

Level of Measurement.

Ex. Impostor Tendencies and Academic Dishonesty.
Sampling

Source of error associated with sampling.

Types of probability sampling.

Types of nonprobability sampling.

Ex. USA Today Reports of Tracking Palls Sometimes
Ignore Sampling Error.
Fundamentals of Statistical Analysis
Descriptive Statistics

Measure of Central Tendency

Statistics

Ex. Examination Results in 2009 and 2010.
Descriptive Statistics II

Measure of Spread

Describing and Comparing Data Sets with
Descriptive Statistics
R Workshop 1

Generate new variables.

Compute summary statistics.
No Class [the instructor is on leave]
Sep 13
Week 2
Sep 18
Sep 20
Week 3
Sep 25
Sep 27
Week 4
Oct 2
Oct 4
Recommended
Readings
Important Dues
AC ch 7
AC ch 5 & 6
H ch 2
No Class [holiday]
Secondary Data Search:

What data is available at the UST library?

How to access the data.
Experimental Research in the Social Sciences

Causal Hypotheses and Experimental Designs.

Experimental Settings

Comparing Experiments to Other Designs.
Due for Assignment
1
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Satoru SHIMOKAWA, SOSC1100, Fall 2012
Week 5
Oct 9
Oct 11
Week 6
Oct 16
Oct 18
Week 7
Oct 23
Oct 25
Week 8
Oct 30
Nov 1
Week 9
Nov 6
Nov 8
Week 10
Nov 13
Nov 15
Week 11
Nov 20
Nov 22
Normal Distribution and Standardization:

Characteristics of the Normal Distribution

Standard Normal Distribution.

Comparing Scores from Different Distributions.

Ex. Scores from TOEFL iBT, TOEFL CBT and
TOEIC.
Sampling Distributions:

Population and Samples.

Sampling Distribution of the Mean

Central Limit Theorem

Normal and t Distribution

Ex. How to interpret your IQ scores?
Confidence Interval

Statistical Significance and Estimation

Confidence Interval
Hypothesis Testing

Hypothesis Testing with One Sample

Selecting Samples for Comparison.

Hypothesis Testing with Two Samples

Ex. Evaluate the Effect of a New Sleeping Pill
No Class [holiday]
H ch 3
H ch 5
H ch 4 & 6
H ch 7 & 8
Briefing on Data

Explain about Questionnaires.

Structure of Data Sets
Selecting Researchable Questions

Sources of Researchable Questions

Developing a Researchable Question

Association and Causality
Due for Assignment
2
R Workshop 2

Hypothesis Testing
Review Exercises
Mid-term Exam (closed book)
Significance, Error and Power

Type I and Type II errors.

Statistical and Practical Significance.

The power of a Test.

The choice of Significance Level.
Associations between Categorical Variables

Contingency Tables

Chi-squared Test of Independence
Simple Regression

Linear regression and Pearson correlation coefficient.

Interpretation of correlation and regression.

Problems with correlation and regression.

The standard error of the estimate.

Exercises
Simple Regression II (Remaining)
Multiple Regression

Partial correlation.

Multiple correlation.

Multiple regression.
Multiple Regression II (Remaining)
R Workshop 2

Chi-squared test

Regression Analysis
Review Exercises
H ch 9
Submit a Group
Membership Form
H p172-181.
H ch 20
H ch 20 & 21
Submit a Research
Question for a
Group Project.
Submit a Working
Template.
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Satoru SHIMOKAWA, SOSC1100, Fall 2012
Week 12
Nov 27
Nov 29
Week 13
Dec 4
Dec 6
Dec 8
TBA
Meetings for a Group Project

Report your progress to the instructor (5 min for each
group)

Work on your group project

Prepare for your presentation

Q&A
Meetings for a Group Project

Report your progress to the instructor (5min for each
group)

Work on your group project

Prepare for your presentation

Q&A
Group Presentations
Due for Assignment
3
Group Presentations
Deadline for submitting a group project report [by 5pm].
Final exam (closed book)
AC = Adler, E., S., & Clark, R. 2008. How it’s done: An invitation to social research
H = Hinton, P. 2004. Statistics Explained: A Guide for Social Science Students.
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Satoru SHIMOKAWA, SOSC1100, Fall 2012
Working Template for SOSC1100 Group Project
Group Name: _______________________________________________
What is your project theme?
Research Question 1:
___________________________________________________________________________
Relevant items in
the questionnaire
Statistical analyses
(to be) conducted
Key findings
Managerial
implications
Queries
Note. Each group has to complete one working template and submit it to the instructor
by the end of Week 11.
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Satoru SHIMOKAWA, SOSC1100, Fall 2012
Research Question 2:
___________________________________________________________________________
Relevant items in
the questionnaire
Statistical analyses
(to be) conducted
Key findings
Managerial
implications
Queries
Research Question 3:
___________________________________________________________________________
Relevant items in
the questionnaire
Statistical analyses
(to be) conducted
Key findings
Managerial
implications
Queries
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Satoru SHIMOKAWA, SOSC1100, Fall 2012
Peer Evaluation Sheet for SOSC1100
Most groups work effectively. Members benefit from the synergy developed as multiple
viewpoints and multiple skills are brought together to address a common problem. However,
you may wish to have a chance to evaluate each other – particularly if the workload has been
shared unevenly.
Please complete the following peer evaluation form and email it to our TA no later than
December 15, 2012 (5pm). To encourage your taking part in this exercise, 1 point will be
credited to your class participation upon the receipt of your peer evaluation sheet. I will
adjust each person's individual grade for group project on the basis of the submitted peer
evaluations from his or her group.
Instructions: Distribute 100 points among the members of your group (including yourself) to
indicate their relative contribution in completing the group project.
Group Member
Points
1 Your Name:
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Total
100
Your Name:
Group Name:
Your Student ID:
Date:
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