SOC 103M
Winter 2019
Computer
Applications to Data Management in Sociology
TTh 2-3:20
SSB 101
Akos Rona-Tas
Office Hours:
Th 10:30-11:20
by appointment
488 SSB
e-mail: aronatas@ucsd.edu
This
course will introduce you to data management through a research project of your
own. You will learn practical skills that you will be able to use widely, as a
student who needs to manage information learned in class, as a researcher who
needs to marshal data gathered for a project, or as an employee who needs to
organize information for work tasks.
You
will learn how to manage both quantitative and qualitative data. Accordingly,
the course will be split into two halves, each devoted to one kind of analysis
and software. In the first part of the course you will be using Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences or SPSS, a user friendly statistical package
where all you need to do is to click on pull-down menus. You will learn how to
input data in an analyzable, numeric form, then using a real data set
representative of the United States, called the General Social Survey, you will
have a chance to investigate real social issues. You will learn powerful ways
of organizing, describing, depicting and exploring regularities in the data.
While you will become familiar with basic statistical concepts, this is not a
class in statistics. If you know how to add, subtract, multiply, divide, square
and take a square-root with a calculator, you are properly prepared.
We
will also introduce a new tool Survey
Analysis through Visual Exploration or SUAVE, that allows you to study
relationships visually and with the help of zoom technology, investigate cases
of special importance.
In
the second part of the course you will turn to qualitative data and become
acquainted with NVIVO 12, a software that helps you handle qualitative
information from unstructured data. You will learn about organizing and linking
documents, coding, searching, annotating texts, organizing codes and building
theories.
There
are no textbooks for the course, but if you are looking for useful books I
recommend Adventures in Social Research, by Earl Babbie
et al., and Qualitative Data Analysis
with NVivo by Pat Bazeley
and Kristi Jackson.
Both
SPSS and NVIVO will be available in the Social Science Computing Facility (SSB
139). SUAVE is web based. Although there is no expensive textbook for this
course, I strongly recommend you get your own access to NVIVO. You can rent it for
24 months (for PC $99, for Mac $85). You can also buy it, but that is
more expensive. While having your own NVIVO is important, having your own SPSS
software is more of a convenience. You can own two copies for 6 months for about $35.
(You will be fine with getting the Grad Pack basic package.)
The door code for SSB 139 and SSB 140 is
0513216. You can find
futher details here:
https://sdacs.ucsd.edu/~icc/index.php
There
will be 10 assignments. The first nine each will be worth 7% and the final
assignment 20% of your
grade. The Midterm will be
12% and another 5%
will come from class participation.
The
class has a Web site :
http://weber.ucsd.edu/~aronatas/SOC103M.htm
It
has this syllabus, the assignments and, contains all the statistical material
covered in the first part of the course.
Assignments:
GENERAL
INSTRUCTIONS for the assignments:
Please be sure to
present your responses in an organized, clear, grammatically correct, paragraph
format (i.e. no sentence fragments, bullets, etc.). Be sure to proof read,
spell check, and make appropriate paragraph breaks when necessary. All homework
must be handed in electronically via TritonEd, except for
NVIVO files and folders that will stay in your personal directory.
January 8
MANAGING
QUANTITATIVE DATA (SPSS AND SUAVE)
January 10
(Class split between first SSB 101 and then the computer lab)
Introduction
to SPSS
The Data Editor: Data Entry
Transforming
Data: Computing and Recoding, Composite Measures
Splitting
Files and Selecting Cases
January 15
Assignment
A1 due
Frequency Distributions
Measures of Central Tendency
Measuring Variation
Visual Presentation: Bar and Pie Chart, Histogram
January 17
Assignment
A2 due
The Strength of the Relationship and the Significance of the Relationship
Crosstabulation
Cramer's V
Gamma an Ordinal Scale Measure of the
Strength of the Relationship
Correlation Coefficient
(Pearson's r) an Interval/Ratio Scale Measure of the Strength of the
Relationship
January 22
Assignment
A3 due
Visualization of Causal Explanation
January 24
Make sure you have a question. What do you want to explain? How will you measure it?
What are some of the possible explanations? Have at least three.
What is your dependent variable? What are your independent variables?
January 29
Assignment
A4 due
Multi-causal
explanations
Logic of experimentation and multivariate analysis
Multiple regression
February 5
MIDTERM
February 7
NO CLASSES
February 12
Assignment
A5 due
February 14
Explanations
and Exceptions
February 19
Practicing with SUAVE
MANAGING
QUALITIATIVE DATA (NVIVO 10)
February 21
Introduction
to NVIVO 10
Here is a video tutorial for
NVIVO 10
February 26
Creating
Documents
February 28
Assignment
B1 is due
March 5
Assignment B2 is due
March 7
Models, Queries and Visualization
How to build models, run searches and visualize results in NVIVO 10
March 12
March 14
Assignment B4 is due
The final assingment is due 11:59 pm, March 21. If you turn your paper in before 8:00 am, March 19, I will give you a grade. If you don't like the grade you will have the opportunity to resubmit by the final deadline.