Applied quantitative analysis a practical introduction SOSM-405 (5 cr) Session 1: Getting started Tue 8-10, Period III, Jan-Feb 2018 Faculty of Social Sciences / University of Helsinki Teemu Kemppainen teemu.t.kemppainen@helsinki.fi https://teemunsivu.wordpress.com/applied-quantitative-analysis/

Contents Practical matters Learning diary Preliminary schedule Research process Cross-sectional surveys & Q-Q debate Some key concepts (intuitive approach) Populations and samples in surveys Data Variable and covariation Hands-on!

Practical matters Seven meetings, same time and place I’m available for tutoring after the class Tue 10-11:30 By appointment, at Unioninkatu 35 (U35) 5 credits (5 x 27 h = 135 h in total) independent work (max 15 hrs/week, 8 weeks)

Learning diary Collect all the weekly exercises here indicate clearly session and exercise numbers in the text using titles and subtitles After the last session: final set of exercises (a bit more demanding) Title page: course name, your name, student number Table of contents When asked to use literature, use citations in the text List references in the end (style e.g. Kemppainen 2017, p 96 ->) Own reflections about the course, learning process, substance matter Length 20-30 pages Finnish, Swedish or English Mid-term DL Sun 4th February Final DL Sun 11th March Pass / Corrections / Fail Max one week late: lots of extra work More than one week: I cannot promise anything, probably fail Kemppainen T (2017): Disorder and insecurity in a residential context. A study focusing on Finnish suburban housing estates built in the 1960s and 1970s. PHD thesis, 193 pages. City of Helsinki, Research series, 2017:2.

Preliminary schedule Sessions 1 & 2: Basics, descriptives, data management, statistical inference 3 & 4: Data reduction (sum variables, exploratory factor analysis) 5 & 6: Regression (OLS, logistic) 7: TBA…maybe a guest lecture or more advanced regression topics

Some readings (e-books in Helka) Julie Pallant: SPSS Survival Manual

Some readings (e-books in Helka)

Some readings (e-books in Helka)

Some readings (e-books in Helka) In Helka: ”SPSS”  97 e-books!

Research process: a version Deduction Confirmatory ”The Thought” : ideas, thought, intuition, guesses…prior studies Theory Idea Interpretation Induction Exploratory Concepts Data analysis Results Empirical work ”The World” : observations, trials, data collection, analysis, testing… Cf. What to write in the text (thesis, research article, scientific monograph)? Depends on the discipline and research area. E.g. A strict IMRD narrative in QUAN studies. Different text styles and conventions. Check what’s required.

What we will and won’t discuss in this course QUAL data: ethnographic observations, texts, pictures, in-depth interviews…”Text?” QUAN data: registers, trials, surveys…”Numbers?” Longitudinal and cross-sectional This course: cross-sectional surveys Survey: structured data collection with a questionnaire Opinions, attitudes, experiences, subjective well-being etc. Structured: questions and response options pre-determined Brief excursion: ”incompatibility thesis” / paradigm wars vs. triangulation / mixed methods

Populations and samples in surveys Random sample Non-response Data Different sampling techniques Statistical inference, study objectives

Data: it’s just a table !

…and numbers! Co-variation, covariance, correlation, association, relationship… Variation, variable, variance, differences Meta-data (variable and value labels) & paradata (e.g. data collection  reporting!)

Hands on! Let’s start practising…