SOC 281 - Data Analysis Using PASW, 4 credit hours

Prerequisite(s): PSY 278 or ECN 279 or MTH 135, and a research course in a discipline related to student’s specialization or consent of the instructor. Required of all Sociology majors. For Statistics minors, all other required courses in the minor need to be completed before taking this course as a capstone.
Valued by employers and graduate schools alike, this course develops marketable skills used in social science analyses as well as in other areas of research like communications, business, and health. Students use the Predictive Analytics Software (formerly Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) to create data files, recode variables, and analyze relationships in the data. Participants in the class learn how to formulate research hypotheses and empirically test them in a user-friendly computer lab. The course is based on conceptual understanding of statistical analysis and emphasizes a practical, working knowledge of various statistical tests with calculations performed by the software. Do analysis of your own choosing, starting with the data and ending with impressive tables and graphs with which to convey the findings to the world. In the end you might like data analysis like many students who took the class before you!