SOAN 2120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: List Of Statistical Packages, Spurious Relationship, Participant Observation

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology and Anthropology
• Course: SOAN 2120
• Professor: D Walters

Document Summary

The interrelationship between theory and methods (part two) The relationship between two variables is called correlation. When the relationship is linear (and only then), you can use the correlation coefficient (r) Independent variables (the cause); sometimes called explanatory variables. Dependent variables (the effect); sometimes called response variables. In the example of education and income, education is the independent variable (the x variable on the horizontal axis) and the income is the dependent variable (the y variable on the vertical axis) Statistics does not equal mathematics statisticians never definitively prove anything, but they can prove things beyond a reasonable doubt. Regression analysis identifying whether the effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable is statistically significant, while holding other variables constant. Survey research advantages very good to tap into attitudes, quick and easy to administer, can be used on a large number of respondents, and very generalizable to the real world: disadvantage the issue of control.