14 April 2014
Basics of Inferential Statistics for Political Scientists
This is a refresher course in basic concepts of inferential statistics. Although mathematics will be minimized, at least one course in college level algebra is assumed. Understanding of the notion of the integral would help, but is not necessary.
Course outline:
1. Basic notions of probability: events, random variables, probability distribution, cumulative
distribution function.
2. Some standard distributions: binomial, Poisson, normal, t.
3. Expected value and variance.
4. Sampling distributions of the mean, variance, and the difference of two means.
5. Point estimation, standard errors, confidence intervals.
6. Hypotheses testing, Type I and Type II errors.
7. Some basic tests: one sample and two sample t-tests, analysis of proportions, test of
association between two categorical variables, introduction to bivariate linear regression.
The course will consist of 10.5 hours of lectures, and 7.5 hours of practical work. SPSS will be used, but no experience with the program is assumed.
Course leader
Janez Stare
Target group
Participants should have basic knowledge of high school level algebra, understand the notion of a function, and some knowledge of calculus (maximisation of a function, integration) is welcome, but not necessary.
Fee info
EUR 325: ECPR Member
EUR 425: ECPR Non-member