234012 VO Statistics for Social Scientists 1 (Lecture) (2023W)

This course is intended to provide the foundations of statistical techniques commonly implemented in social sciences. In addition, the refresher course aims at achieving a common standard in statistical methods among students, and help prepare for more advanced quantitative courses. The course will start by introducing students with basic concepts, notations, and techniques of summarizing and presenting data in a meaningful way. The second part will focus probability and probability distributions. The third part of the course will deal with the basic problem of statistical analysis-how we make general statements about the `phenomenon itself' from observed data. It will include likelihood functions, hypothesis testing, confidence intervals and ordinary linear regressionanalysis. METHODS: The teaching method mainly involves classroom lectures where the instructor will explain intuitions and concepts with worked examples.