Survey Data Analysis I: Introducing Descriptive & Inferential Statistics
Venue: Highfield Campus, University of Southampton, UK
Presenter: Dr Gabriele Durrant and Dr Nikos Tzavidis
Dates of Course: Wednesday 23rd - Friday 25th November 2011
This course has already run. Please check the course listings for a future course.
Summary of Course:
Topics will include descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing for differences between means and proportions and basic contingency table analysis. Practical computer workshops will be used to analyse sample survey data with the computer package SPSS.
Course Objectives:
- To develop an understanding of the basic principles of statistical analysis.
- To enable participants to employ appropriate methods of presenting data in research reports and papers.
Course Content:
- Overview
- Introduction and review of descriptive statistics
- Confidence intervals for means and proportions
- Setting up and testing hypotheses
- Tests of statistical significance
- Two sample tests for means and proportions
- One-way analysis of variance
- Association in tables (Chi-square tests)
The course will include workshop sessions so that participants can work through practical group exercises as well as computer exercises using SPSS. Course participants will be introduced to analysing sample survey data.
Target Audience:
The course is aimed at researchers who need to perform basic analysis on data from sample surveys, especially those in the social, economic, educational and medical sciences. Participants may be researchers working in academia, local or central government, survey agencies, market research, the voluntary or the private sector.
Pre-requisites:
Participants should have a basic familiarity with statistical concepts through a previous introductory course or equivalent experience. This "refresher" course provides a good background to the Survey Data Analysis II course which is another CASS course. For course participants new to this topic the preparatory reading below is recommended. No familiarity with the software SPSS is required.
Please bring a calculator for the workshops as well as a USB memory stick in case you would like to save your computer workshop outputs.
Course Materials:
Participants will receive written course notes.
Please bring a calculator for the workshops as well as a USB memory stick in case you would like to save your outputs from the computer workshops.
The Instructors:
Dr Gabriele B. Durrant is a Senior Lecturer at the Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute (S3RI) at the University of Southampton. She is the principal investigator of two 3-year ESRC-funded research grants in the UK, one on paradata and one on nonresponse analysis. She has research interests in the analysis of paradata, interviewer effects, nonresponse in sample surveys, measurement error, and statistical modelling in the social sciences, in particular multilevel modelling. She is guest editor of a special issue on paradata of the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A, Associate Editor of JRSSA and member of the committee of the Royal Statistical Society Social Statistics Section. Gabriele has taught a wide range of statistical courses, primarily short courses at postgraduate level, including courses for professional development. She completed her PhD in Statistics at the University of Southampton and has a BSc and MSc in Mathematics and Geography.
Dr Nikos Tzavidis is a Senior Lecturer in Social Statistics at the Division of Social Statistics and at the Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute at the University of Southampton. He has worked extensively on issues related to the use of quantile models in small area estimation and poverty mapping. He is specialised in quantile regression, small area estimation, robust models, spatial analysis and applications of multilevel and multivariate multilevel models in psychology and psychiatry. He is currently involved in developing quantile random effects models, M-quantile models for binary and count data, quantile contextual value added models, robust models for small area estimation and poverty mapping, models for estimating income distribution functions at disaggregated geographical levels and spatial models for poverty mapping and Mean Squared Error estimation in small area estimation. He has taught courses in small area estimation, quantile regression, generalised linear models, multilevel models, and longitudinal data analysis at postgraduate level at the Universities of Manchester, Southampton and at the Institute of Education, University of London and in external programmes of short courses. He is currently supervising three PhD students, with two PhD students having already graduated, and he is coordinating the MSc programme in Social Statistics and the MSc programme in Demography at the Division of Social Statistics, University of Southampton. Dr Tzavidis has participated in research programmes at National, European and International level. He recently completed work on an EU FP7 project on small area models for estimating income and poverty. He recently also completed a project on applications of multivariate multilevel models to psychiatry data, which was funded by the British Academy. He is currently participating in the Southampton/Office for National Statistics (ONS) methodological contract (small area estimation). He is also currently advising a government research department (COLMEX) in Mexico on the implementation of small area models for poverty estimation.
Location and Accommodation:
The course will be held at the Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute, Building 39, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ. Participants will need to make their own accommodation arrangements. Further information on accommodation and course location is available here.
Duration:
On the first day, the course will start with registration and coffee at 9.30 with formal teaching starting at 10.00 am; it will finish at about 5.30pm. On the last day, teaching starts at 9am and formal teaching finishes at about 3pm. Afterwards there will be an opportunity for participants to ask questions about the course and to discuss with the instructor how to analyse their own data (until about 4pm). (You can bring your own data to the course if you wish).
Preparatory Reading:
Participants who feel particularly "rusty" could skim through any introductory level textbook on statistical methods. Some examples are:
- Understanding Social Statistics, Fielding, J. and Gilbert, N., 2nd edition, 2007, Sage Publications.
- Beginning Statistics. An Introduction for Social Scientists, Ian Diamond and Julie Jefferies, 2nd Edition, 2001.
- Analyzing Quantitative Data, Norman Blaikie, 2003, London, SAGE Publications.
- Analyzing Social Science Data, David de Vaus, 2002, London, Sage Publications.
- Understanding Statistics, An Introduction for the Social Sciences, Daniel B. Wright, 1997, London, Sage Publications.
- Introducing Data Analysis for Social Scientists, David Rose and Oriel Sullivan, Open University Press, 2nd Edition, 1996.
- Basic Statistics for the Behavioural Sciences, Gary W Heiman, Houghton Mifflin Company, 5th Edition, 2005.
- Quantitative Data Analysis with SPSS, Release 12 for Social Scientists, Alan Bryman and Duncan Cramer, Routledge, 2005.
- A Basic Course in Statistics, Geoffrey Clarke and D Cooke, 4th edition, Arnold, 1998.
- Discovering Statistics Using SPSS, Andy Field, 3rd edition, Sage, 2009.
Course Fees:
£30 per day for UK-registered students. £60 per day for staff from UK academic institutions (including research centres), ESRC funded researchers and UK registered charitable organisations. £220 per day for all other participants. The course fee includes course materials, lunches and morning and afternoon refreshments. Travel and accommodation are to be arranged and paid for by the participant.
Deadlines and Refunds:
Course places are limited and early registration is recommended. Please be aware that we will only hold a place without payment for a limited time.
Online registration and payment is strongly encouraged.
A Purchase Order is required for Invoice payments. A copy of the Purchase Order must be emailed, faxed or posted to the CASS Administration Assistant. If you have registered online please ensure that the Purchase Order number is included at the time of registration and that you email, fax or post a copy of the Purchase Order. We are unable to process an Invoice payment without a Purchase Order.
A refund is available for cancellations made up to one calendar month before the course, but no refunds are available for cancellations after this date. Please note, in case of a cancellation, an administration charge of £30 will apply.