This is my OER guide to very basic concepts of basic social statistics. Note that this is not designed to be a comprehensive text for graduate students. My bent is decidedly conceptual, and my goals tend toward intelligent consumerism rather than computational proficiency. Rather than doing computations “by hand,” I focus on doing things in Excel or similar spreadsheet programs (e.g., Google Sheets).

Table of Contents

Section 1.1: Statistics and the Social Sciences [Learning Resources]

Section 1.2: Basic Math Review [Learning Resources]

Section 1.3: Using Spreadsheets [Learning Resources]

Section 1.4: Variables [Learning Resources]

Section 1.5: Scales of Measurement [Learning Resources]

Section 2.1: Probability and Samples [Learning Resources]

Section 2.2: Nonprobability Sampling [Learning Resources]

Section 2.3: Describing Data [Learning Resources]

Section 2.4: Percentages & Rates [Learning Resources]

Section 2.5: Frequency Distributions [Learning Resources]

Section 3.1: Measures of Central Tendency [Learning Resources]

Section 3.2: Measures of Variability [Learning Resources]

Section 3.3: Standard Deviation [Learning Resources]

Section 3.4: The Normal Curve [Learning Resources]

Section 3.5: Percentiles and Standard Scores [Learning Resources]

Section 4.1: Introduction to Effect Size [Learning Resources]

Section 4.2: Correlation [Learning Resources]

Section 4.3: Multiple Correlations [Learning Resources]

Section 4.4: Linear Regression [Learning Resources]

Section 4.5: Advanced Regression Models [Learning Resources]

Section 5.1: The Logic of Hypothesis Testing [Learning Resources]

Section 5.2: Decision Errors [Learning Resources]

Section 5.3: Power [Learning Resources]

Section 5.4: Assumptions [Learning Resources]

Section 5.5: One-tailed vs. Two-tailed Tests [Learning Resources]

Section 6.1: Error and Confidence Intervals [Learning Resources]

Section 6.2: t-Tests [Learning Resources]

Section 6.3: Non-parametric Tests [Learning Resources]

Section 6.4: Significance and Correlations [Learning Resources]

Section 6.5: ANOVA Tests [Learning Resources]

Section 7.1: Multiple Regression [Learning Resources]

Section 7.2: Factor Analysis [Learning Resources]

Section 7.3: Logistic Regression [Learning Resources]

Section 7.4: ANCOVA [Learning Resources]

Section 7.5: Structural Equation Models (SEMs) [Learning Resources]