Sara
McLaughlin Mitchell Fall
2001
544 Bellamy 511
BEL
Office Hours: Monday
3:00-4:30pm WF
9:30-10:45am
Phone: 644-7324
Email: sara@icow.org
Web: http://sara.icow.org
Political Science Data
Analysis
POS 5737
Course
Description
This
course is an introduction to statistical analysis, the second in our
four-course research methods sequence.
Its purpose is to (1) provide you with an understanding of some of the
concepts that underlie statistical analysis, (2) introduce you to some basic
statistical techniques, and (3) develop your own capacity to do quantitative
analysis.
Another
goal of the course is to expose you to the use of computers, by having you use
SPSS for Windows or STATA to calculate statistics you will be learning in
class. One of our advanced graduate
students, Steve Shellman, will provide assistance for all computer assignments. I will give you more detailed information
about these assignments as the semester progresses.
You
can always come to see me if you have questions about the course material. You can also meet with Steve Shellman, the
teaching assistant for this course. His
office is located in 557 Bellamy and his email address is
sms6202@garnet.acns.fsu.edu.
Course
Requirements
Each
student is expected to attend all class meetings and to have completed all
required readings prior to each class.
Reading a statistics text is very different from the readings you will be
doing in your other classes. It may
take you multiple readings of a section before you understand it, and so you
may need to set aside enough time to work through these chapters.
1)
Homework
Assignments
Each week, I will distribute a homework assignment
on Friday, and it will be due the following Friday. The first homework assignment will be distributed on Friday,
September 7th. The homework
assignments will be worth 30%. I would
also recommend working through some of the problems in each chapter of Wonnacott
and Wonnacott.
2)
Exams
There will be a midterm and a final exam, worth 30%
and 40%, respectively. The midterm exam
is scheduled on Wednesday, October 24th. The final exam is cumulative and it is scheduled on Monday,
December 10th from 1:00-3:00pm in 511 Bellamy.
Students
pursuing a Ph.D. need to be aware of the following statement in the Graduate
Program Handbook:
"Students
are required to achieve a grade of B or higher in each of the four methods
courses. Students receiving a B- in any
of the courses are permitted to continue in the sequence, but are required to
retake the course at its next availability and raise the grade. Students receiving a C+ or lower are
required to retake the courses before taking any other course in the sequence,
except POS 5750."
Required
Texts
Berry,
William D. and Mitchell S. Sanders. 2000. Understanding Multivariate
Research. Boulder,
CO:
Westview Press.
Wonnacott,
Thomas H. and Ronald J. Wonnacott. 1990. Introductory
Statistics (Fifth Edition). New York: Wiley.
There
will also be a few articles and handouts that I will distribute throughout the
semester.
Class Schedule Topic Required Reading
Wednesday, August 29th Introduction
Friday, August 31st Multivariate
Research Berry and Sanders,
pp. 1-39
Wednesday, September 5th Multivariate Research Berry and Sanders, pp. 41-80
Friday, September 7th Descriptive
Statistics W&W,
Chapters 1-2
Wednesday, September 12th Introduction to Probability W&W, Chapter 3
Friday, September 14th Introduction to Probability W&W, Chapter 3
Wednesday, September 19th Probability
Distributions W&W, Chapter
4
Friday, September 21st Probability
Distributions W&W, Chapter
4
Wednesday, September 26th Probability
Distributions W&W, Chapter
5
Friday, September 28th Sampling Distributions W&W, Chapter 6
Wednesday, October 3rd Sampling
Distributions W&W,
Chapter 6
Friday, October 5th Point
Estimation W&W,
Chapter 7
Wednesday, October 10th Confidence Intervals W&W, Chapter 8
Friday, October 12th Confidence Intervals W&W, Chapter 8
Wednesday, October 17th Hypothesis Testing and W&W, Chapter 9
Statistical
Inference
Friday, October 19th Hypothesis Testing and W&W, Chapter 9
Statistical
Inference
Wednesday, October 24th Midterm Exam
Friday, October 26th No
Class, I will be attending the Peace Science
Society Meeting in Atlanta
Class Schedule Topic Required Reading
Wednesday, October 31st Hypothesis Testing: W&W, Chapter 17
Contingency
Tables
Friday, November 2nd Hypothesis Testing: W&W, Chapter 10
Analysis
of Variance
Wednesday, November 7th Hypothesis Testing: W&W,
Chapter 10
Analysis
of Variance
Friday, November 9th Bivariate Regression W&W, Chapter 11
Wednesday, November 14th Bivariate Regression W&W, Chapter 12
W&W,
Chapter 15,
Sections
15-1, 15-2, 15-3
Friday November 16th Multiple Regression W&W, Chapter 13
W&W,
Chapter 15,
Sections
15-4, 15-5
Wednesday, November 21st No Class, Thanksgiving Holiday
Friday November 23rd No
Class, Thanksgiving Holiday
Wednesday, November 28th Regression Extensions W&W, Chapter 14
Friday December 30th Inference and Maximum W&W, Chapter 18
Likelihood
Wednesday, December 5th Bayesian Statistics W&W, Chapters 19-20
Friday, December 7th Review
for Final Berry and
Sanders (Re-read this
book to see how much you
have learned this semester!)
Monday, December 10th Final Exam, 1:00-3:00pm, 511 Bellamy