PSYCH 229 Statistics for the Behavioral and Social Sciences
This course provides an overview of the fundamental statistical techniques used in the psychology and the behavioral sciences. It is designed for minors in psychology, or majors in other areas requiring one semester of statistics. It covers the basics of organizing and interpreting quantitative data, emphasizing the importance of understanding statistical claims in the media as well as a basic understanding of how statistical tools play a role in research methods and study design. The first half of the semester covers the use of descriptive statistics for organizing data including: scales of measurement; central tendency; the use of frequency tables and histograms; and using z-scores to standardize distributions. The second half of the semester covers essential inferential techniques including: correlation and regression; t-tests, ANOVA and chi-square. The course relies heavily on the use of SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) for the creation of tables and data analysis.