Basic statistical analysis for social research

NatCen Learning

This two day course aims to familiarise participants with how to use basic statistics and understand the principles underlying statistical thinking and practice. As well as review the issues and practical considerations behind different statistical concepts and analysis methods.

The course will be highly participatory and will include lecture-type sessions with real life worked examples to try and improve understanding of various statistical techniques, along with hands-on computer sessions. During the course, participants will get the opportunity to practice the analysis methods presented in the lectures by analysing real survey data using SPSS for Windows.

Course outline
Course content covers:

Basic concepts in data analysis
Review of descriptive statistics: arithmetic mean, proportion/percentage, median, variance, standard deviation
The Normal distribution
Summarising and presenting data in descriptive tables
Precision of survey estimates and confidence intervals
Hypothesis/significance testing: null/alternative hypothesis, p-values, types of error
Comparing differences between means and proportions: t-test, chi-square test, analysis of variance

Who is it aimed at?
This course will be useful to you if you:

are a new researcher or someone new to survey analysis and statistics
have little or no prior experience in statistics and want to explore the principles of statistical analysis
want to learn or review how to analyse survey data and understand the rationale and interpretation of different methods of data analysis.

Learning outcomes
By the end of the module participants will be able to:

select methods of data analysis appropriate to their data and research questions
evaluate data presented in simple tables
work out the most commonly-used descriptive statistics for summarising survey data
appreciate the importance of confidence intervals when generalising data from the sample to the population
calculate confidence intervals for means, proportions and differences
understand the concepts of sampling distribution, sampling error, standard error, variance
understand which statistical tests of significance are appropriate and how to carry them out
carry out a range of analyses using SPSS
critically evaluate the data analysis methods proposed or undertaken in a given study
ensure interpretation of data analysis findings is done correctly and be able to defend the interpretation

Cost and booking
The full price of this course is £650.

We offer discounts to students, academics and those working in the voluntary sector.

Participants will be limited to a maximum group size of 10.