Course manual

PRE-MASTER DESCRIPTIVE AND INFERENTIAL

STATISTICS
S_PMDIS

Academic Year 2021-2022 (4th period)

 CONTENTS
GENERAL INFORMATION ............................................................................................................................ 2

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES...................................................................................................... 3

GENERAL AIM OF THIS COURSE ...........................................................................................................................3

COURSE DESCRIPTION .........................................................................................................................................3

LEARNING GOALS .................................................................................................................................................3

PLACE OF THE COURSE & REQUIRED LEVEL OF ENTRANCE............................................................................ 3

PLACE OF THE COURSE .........................................................................................................................................3

REQUIRED LEVEL OF ENTRANCE...........................................................................................................................3

LEARNING ACTIVITIES................................................................................................................................. 3

TYPE OF ASSESSMENTS .............................................................................................................................. 5

OVERVIEW OF ASSESSMENTS...............................................................................................................................5

SCHEDULE .................................................................................................................................................. 6
COURSE EVALUATION ................................................................................................................................ 7

READINGS.................................................................................................................................................. 8

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 GENERAL INFORMATION

Course name Pre-Master Descriptive and Inferential Statistics

Course code S_PMDIS
Level 100
Academic Year 2021-2022
Period 4
EC & Study load 6 EC (168 hours)
Link to Canvas https://canvas.vu.nl/courses/60431
Course coordinator Name: Mariska van der Horst, e-mail: m.f.j.vanderhorst@vu.nl
Lecturers & tutors Name: Mauricio Garnier-Villarreal, e-mail: m.garniervillarreal@vu.nl
Name: Mariska van der Horst, e-mail: m.f.j.vanderhorst@vu.nl
Mode of instruction Knowledge clips, lectures, SPSS practical
Mode of assessment Exams (2 midterms and 1 final exam)
Language of instruction English
Target group Premaster students
Required prior knowledge
Frequency p/w
Study load allocation Per week* Total
▪ Modules (knowledge clips) 3 21
▪ Literature 11 77
▪ Participate in practice and 3 21
SPSS lectures
▪ Practice (exercises, 6 42
assignments, preparation
tests)
▪ Exams (including midterms) 7
▪ Total 168
* Note: calculation based on 7 weeks

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 COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES

GENERAL AIM OF THIS COURSE

This course provides an introduction into the statistical methods of social science research. Students
develop skills to describe collected quantitative data (descriptive statistics) and to test hypotheses about
intergroup and intragroup variation for statistical generalizability (inferential statistics). Topics covered in
this course include: univariate and bivariate statistics (central tendency, dispersion, association and
correlation), construction and 'reading' of tables on relationships between variables, sampling
distributions, hypothesis testing and calculation of confidence intervals, single and multiple regression, and
reliability analysis.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The course consists of modules (knowledge clips), practice questions, practice lectures, 3 SPSS assignments,
SPSS lectures, 2 midterm exams, and a final exam. The schedule of these activities can be found in this
course manual.

LEARNING GOALS

The aims of the course relate to the following:

1. The student has acquired knowledge and understanding of elementary methods and techniques
of descriptive and inferential statistics
2. The student has acquired the competences to:
a. use the appropriate descriptive statistics given the available data in SPSS
b. apply several elaboration models
c. use statistical techniques to test the difference between two groups
(i.c. t-test), and to apply them in SPSS
d. use statistical techniques to test the association between variables (i.c. correlation
coefficient and regression analysis), and to apply them in SPSS
e. construct a table with relevant statistical information and interpret it correctly

PLACE OF THE COURSE & REQUIRED LEVEL OF ENTRANCE

PLACE OF THE COURSE

This course follows PM Social Research Methodology (S_PMSRM) in P2. Follow-up from this course
depends on the pre-master and master followed by the student.

REQUIRED LEVEL OF ENTRANCE

N/A

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

1 Modules
Each course week consists of a number of modules - see Canvas. Each module contains pre-recorded
knowledge clips. These clips will remain available throughout the course. You do not need to be “live” at

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certain times to be able to follow these digital lectures. It is strongly recommended to have studied the
associated literature before watching the clips.

2 Self-study: practice questions (Book and TestVision)

The book contains ‘chapter problems’ which you can use to practice the theory; the answers of the uneven
numbered questions are provided at the end in the book. Answers to even numbered questions are not
provided. In TestVision, practice excercises are available every week on the material of the relevant week
- Login via TestVision: http://vu.testvision.nl/online/kandidaten

3 Work together on exercises: practice lectures

There is a weekly live lecture to practice with the material from the modules. No new material is explained
here, but we will practice with some of the material. This practice lecture takes place on Friday 11:00 am
(see schedule at the end of this study guide). This practice lecture is not recorded.

Attendance at these practice lectures is not compulsory, but strongly recommended if you have difficulty
with the material / practice questions. Make sure you come prepared and have read the material and
watched the knowledge clips!

4 Self-study: SPSS practical assignments

In addition to the textbook, the course material also consists of three SPSS assignments. The purpose of
these practical assignments is that you directly learn to apply the acquired knowledge using the statistical
software package SPSS. These three assignments are planned in weeks 2, 4 and 6 of the course (=
calendarweek 7, 9, and 11). The assignments are available through TestVision:
http://vu.testvision.nl/online/kandidaten

5 Work together on the SPSS assignment: SPSS lectures

You can of course do the SPSS assignments independently in your own time, but they are also explained by
the teacher during practical lectures: Friday 18 Feb, 4 March and 18 March at 13:30 (see schedule). This
lecture will be recorded. Student assistants are also present during this lecture, who can help you
individually with SPSS, should you ‘get stuck’ during the assignment. Attendance at these SPSS lectures is
not compulsory, but strongly recommended if you have difficulty with the SPSS assignment.

6 Communication

All the announcements of this course will be posted on Canvas. Please make sure that you regularly check
the Canvas page of the course.

Discussion on course issues between the lecturer/the assistants and the students outside the course
meetings takes place in the discussion forums in Canvas. These fora are a very useful means to ask
questions or make remarks. Therefore, students are invited to initiate discussions or to participate in
existing discussions in these fora. This means that students are invited to give answers to questions that
their colleagues have asked as well as post their own questions. These fora are monitored by the lecturer
and the assistants. Students are kindly asked to avoid sending emails to the lecturer unless they refer to
special or individual circumstances. In all other cases, students will be explicitly asked to post their question
in the relevant discussion forum.

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 TYPE OF ASSESSMENTS

OVERVIEW OF ASSESSMENTS

Assessment Grading Weight Date/Deadline

1. Midterm 1 1-10 30%, no min. score 25 Feb., 8:30
2. Midterm 2 1-10 30%, no min. score 11 March, 8:30
3. Final exam 1-10 40%, min. score = 5.0 25 March, 15:30

The determination of the final mark of the course is based on two midterm exams and a final exam. To
successfully complete the course, you must obtain a minimum score of 5.0 for the final exam as well as a
final mark (weighted average of all exams) of 5.5 or higher.
The midterm and final exams are administered via TestVision. Whether it will be on campus and/or at home
via Online Proctoring will be announced on Canvas later and is dependent on policies nationally and within
VU. You are only allowed to use a calculator in TestVision or the calculator on the computer.
Link to TestVision: http://vu.testvision.nl/online/kandidaten
In TestVision, a digital calculator and digital “rough/scrap paper” on which you can make notes (see icons
below) are available during the exams – these same tools are also available for the weekly practice
questions. The digital formula sheet (see Canvas) is also available and may also be used during the tests.

Midterms
There are 2 midterm exams (see the schedule for the date and time). Every midterm consists of 2 parts,
namely: (1) computational and theory questions that can be practiced with the homework assignments in
TestVision and with the questions of the book; and (2) SPSS questions that are comparable with the
questions of the preceding SPSS assignment. Please read the column “readings” in the schedule to see
which material you have to study for every midterm.
Each midterm determines 30% of the final grade. There is no minimum grade you need to get for each
midterm or a minimum mean grade of the midterms.
In case that you are unable to attend a midterm exam for a good reason, please contact the FSS
Examination Board. This can be done via a digital form that you can find on VUnet. The Board assesses the
validity of this reason and decides on a possible alternative examination arrangement, not the teacher.
Final exam
The course will be completed with the final exam, which covers the material of the last weeks of the course,
including SPSS assignment 3. The exam mark determines 40% of the final mark. The two midterms
determine the remaining 60% of the final mark. You must obtain at least a 5.0 for the final exam as well as
a final mark (weighted average of all exams) of 5.5 or higher. If this is not the case, a resit is necessary and
all marks obtained for the midterms will be cancelled (see further information under ‘Resit’).

Resit
The resit takes place by means of one resit that covers all course material, including the 3 SPSS assignments,
and determines 100% of the final mark. The resit is thus one single exam and there is no possibility to take
a resit for one the midterms or the final exam separately.

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 SCHEDULE

Week Module Date Readings Content

Measurement levels, central
Before
1 M0 tendency and en dispersion, Z-
practice Chapter 2
(calendar: 6) M1 transformation (standardising), and
lecture
P-values
Before
Association, correlation, and
M2 practice Chapter 3
introduction simple regression
lecture
Friday
Practice lecture on Modules 0,1,2.
11 February
Before
2 Chapter Reliability Reliability analysis
M3 practice
(calendar: 7) Analysis
lecture
Before
Probabilities, probability
M4 practice Chapter 6 (not 6.3)
distributions
lecture
Before
M5 practice Chapter 7 Sampling distributions
lecture
Friday
Practice lecture on Modules 3,4,5.
18 February
Friday
SPSS lecture: SPSS assignment 1
18 February
Before
3 Chapter 8 (not 8.4, 8.5) Confidence intervals
M6 practice
(calendar: 8)
lecture
Before Chapter 9 (not “binomial
M7 practice test for small samples”*, Hypothesis testing
lecture 9.6)
Friday
Practice lecture on Modules 6+7.
25 February
Friday Material week 1 and 2:
midterm 25 February SPSS assignment 1 and Midterm 1
Modules 0-5.
Before
4 Chapter 10 (only Comparing two means using t-tests:
M8 practice
(calendar: 9) introduction + 10.2 + 10.5) independent samples.
lecture
Before Association between categorical
M9 practice Chapter 11 variables; analysing tables using Chi-
lecture square
Friday
Practice lecture on Modules 8+9.
4 March
Friday
SPSS lecture: SPSS assignment 2
4 March
Before
5 Chapter 12 (not 12.5)
M10 practice Regression (1). simple regression
(calendar: 10)
lecture

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 Before
Chapter 12 (not 12.5) Regression (2). multiple regression,
M11 practice
Chapter 13 (not 13.4, 13.6) control variabes.
lecture
Friday
Practice lecture on Module 10+11.
11 March
Friday material week 3 and 4:
midterm 11 March SPSS assignment 2 and Midterm 2
Modules 6-9.
Before Again:
6 Regression (3). Dummy variables,
M12 practice Chapter 12 (not 12.5)
(calendar: 11) interaction with a dummy variable.
lecture Chapter 13 (not 13.4, 13.6)
Before Again:
M13 practice Chapter 12 (not 12.5) Regression (4). Assumptions.
lecture Chapter 13 (not 13.4, 13.6)
Before Again: Regression (5). Confounders and
M14 practice Chapter 12 (not 12.5) mediators; reading a regression
lecture Chapter 13 (not 13.4, 13.6) table.
Friday Practice lecture on Modules 12 +
18 March 13+14.
Friday
SPSS lecture: SPSS assignment 3
18 March
7
(calendar: 12)
Friday Material week 5 and 6:
exam 25 March SPSS assignment 3 and Exam 1st chance
Modules 10-14.

Exam All material, including all

TBA Exam 2nd chance (resit)
resit SPSS assignments.
*Note: “Binomial test for small samples” is on pages 425//419//430 in A&F, 3e edition, 2013, USA print and
A&F, 3e edition, 2013, Europe print (Global ed.), and AF&K, 4e edition, 2018, Europe print (Global ed.).

The chapters that are mentioned in the schedule come from the book: Alan Agresti, Christine Franklin &
Bernhard Klingenberg. Statistics: the Art and Science of Learning from Data (4th edition, 2018).

COURSE EVALUATION

We really value feedback on the courses and consider evaluation as a mutual process of giving and receiving
feedback back and forward between course coordinators and students. This course will be evaluated at
the end, but any feedback during the course is gratefully received.

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 READINGS

• Alan Agresti, Christine Franklin & Bernhard Klingenberg. Statistics: the Art and
Science of Learning from Data (4th edition, 2018).
• Recommended reading: Chapter on Reliability Analysis from the book of
Gerhard van de Bunt (compiler). Descriptive and Inferential Statistics in the
Social Sciences (2011). Pearson Custom Publishing. This chapter will become
available on Canvas.

Software:
Software-package SPSS, for instance via Surfspot (https://www.surfspot.nl/). Surfspot offers version 28 for
€7.50 (for Apple Mac, Linux and Windows), but the version does not matter, an older version of SPSS can
also be used for this course.
A chromebook is not suitable for a program such as SPSS.