Course Description: Using data from politics and international relations, this course builds basic numeracy skills for social scientists. It develops knowledge of descriptive statistics and introduces students to inferential (parametric and non-parametric) statistical techniques, including rudiments of multiple regression analysis. Emphasis on computer applications.

Course Objectives: At the completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Understand how to apply the scientific method to questions in the social sciences,
2. Develop measures of social and political phenomena, and weigh the relative pros and cons of different measurements,
3. Describe data using statistical and visual approaches,
4. Conduct several different types of hypothesis tests,
5. Estimate and interpret regression models,
6. Interpret and communicate statistical results,
7. Explain the fundamental problem of causal inference and attempts to overcome it,
8. Differentiate between quantitative and qualitative research methods, and experimental and non-experimental methods,
9. Use R to produce statistical analyses and appropriate data visualizations.

Syllabus: Statistics, Fall 2025

Last Taught Fall 2025