Statistics for Social Sciences
MGMT 141
Class Session 1, 1/22
Class is designed to teach real-life skills and provide knowledge that will help navigate the
business world. Everything taught is applicable to real business life.
Statistics is an important tool for making decisions in almost any field– it provides practical,
condensed information. There must be all aspects (holistic point of view) to understand data, not
small pieces as it only provides a small bit of information– there must be an understanding of the
big picture.
Group:
● Analyze data and make predictions about future data
● Helps visualize data, what is the most common and what is rarer
● Consolidates data so it is easier to look over
Class:
● Banning drugs, what is harmful and what isn't
● Making laws, such as alcohol age limit and seatbelt requirements
● Forecasting trends for industries
● Health risk data
● Family History for illness
● Infographics can be used to visualize data
● Easy to digest
● Technology makes it easier to spread and find this data
Benefits of Statistics
● Develops critical thinking
● Great way to enhance argument in paper/presentation
● Easier to be promoted and earn more money
,The more you learn the more you earn.
Group (Pink Panthers):
● Workers’ Low Motivation
○ Physical Environment
Class Session 2, 1/27
Group Assigned: Honey Bees
How can statistics help on a personal level?
● Improves reasoning power and critical thinking ability
How can statistics help on an organizational level?
● Eliminate environmental uncertainty
● Gain competitive advantage
● Understand power of human behaviour
What is Research?
“Research is a systemic inquiry to describe, explain, predict, and control the observed
phenomenon.” It includes inductive and deductive methods.
IMRaD refers to the standard structure of the body of scientific manuscripts:
● Introduction
● Materials and Methods
● Results and
● Discussion and Conclusions
Empirical vs. Everyday Observation:
● Empirical is planned in advance
Empirical Data:
● Researchers should eliminate cause of misleading factors
● Researchers should evaluate some limitations such as physical, ethical, legal, and
financial
○ Researchers should take into account these limitations
, ● Research varies in quality
○ Flawed research can be misleading
● Researchers make observations to acquire data
○ Observations result in data
■ Can be numerical or verbal (quantitative or qualitative)
○ Groups studied are called participants, mostly used in social/behavioral science
Independent Variables vs. Dependent Variables:
● Independent Variables are administered/manipulated by researchers so that they
may observe possible changes in the dependent variables
● Purpose of experiments is to demonstrate/find a cause-and-effect relationship in
which the independent variable is the possible cause of change in the
dependent variable, which demonstrates the possible change.
○ Changing X means Y will change. Changing Y will not affect X. How
and why does Y depend on X as to its result?
Non-experimental Studies:
● Sometimes called descriptive studies
● Without administration of treatments, it is defined as a study in which
observations are made to determine the status of what exists at a given point in
time.
○ An example is a survey in which a researcher wants to determine
participants’ attitudes.
■ Researchers strive not to change participants’ attitudes
■ Questions cannot be misleading and interviewers must remain
completely neutral
■ If done well, researcher
Group Discussion:
● Do you think that the opinions of your friends are good predictors of the
outcomes of the election? Why or why not?
○ No, as people typically surround themselves with like-minded
people
● Try to recall an example in which you were misled by an everyday
observation. Briefly describe it.
○ The weather reports– report two inches of snow but then it does
not snow.
MGMT 141
Class Session 1, 1/22
Class is designed to teach real-life skills and provide knowledge that will help navigate the
business world. Everything taught is applicable to real business life.
Statistics is an important tool for making decisions in almost any field– it provides practical,
condensed information. There must be all aspects (holistic point of view) to understand data, not
small pieces as it only provides a small bit of information– there must be an understanding of the
big picture.
Group:
● Analyze data and make predictions about future data
● Helps visualize data, what is the most common and what is rarer
● Consolidates data so it is easier to look over
Class:
● Banning drugs, what is harmful and what isn't
● Making laws, such as alcohol age limit and seatbelt requirements
● Forecasting trends for industries
● Health risk data
● Family History for illness
● Infographics can be used to visualize data
● Easy to digest
● Technology makes it easier to spread and find this data
Benefits of Statistics
● Develops critical thinking
● Great way to enhance argument in paper/presentation
● Easier to be promoted and earn more money
,The more you learn the more you earn.
Group (Pink Panthers):
● Workers’ Low Motivation
○ Physical Environment
Class Session 2, 1/27
Group Assigned: Honey Bees
How can statistics help on a personal level?
● Improves reasoning power and critical thinking ability
How can statistics help on an organizational level?
● Eliminate environmental uncertainty
● Gain competitive advantage
● Understand power of human behaviour
What is Research?
“Research is a systemic inquiry to describe, explain, predict, and control the observed
phenomenon.” It includes inductive and deductive methods.
IMRaD refers to the standard structure of the body of scientific manuscripts:
● Introduction
● Materials and Methods
● Results and
● Discussion and Conclusions
Empirical vs. Everyday Observation:
● Empirical is planned in advance
Empirical Data:
● Researchers should eliminate cause of misleading factors
● Researchers should evaluate some limitations such as physical, ethical, legal, and
financial
○ Researchers should take into account these limitations
, ● Research varies in quality
○ Flawed research can be misleading
● Researchers make observations to acquire data
○ Observations result in data
■ Can be numerical or verbal (quantitative or qualitative)
○ Groups studied are called participants, mostly used in social/behavioral science
Independent Variables vs. Dependent Variables:
● Independent Variables are administered/manipulated by researchers so that they
may observe possible changes in the dependent variables
● Purpose of experiments is to demonstrate/find a cause-and-effect relationship in
which the independent variable is the possible cause of change in the
dependent variable, which demonstrates the possible change.
○ Changing X means Y will change. Changing Y will not affect X. How
and why does Y depend on X as to its result?
Non-experimental Studies:
● Sometimes called descriptive studies
● Without administration of treatments, it is defined as a study in which
observations are made to determine the status of what exists at a given point in
time.
○ An example is a survey in which a researcher wants to determine
participants’ attitudes.
■ Researchers strive not to change participants’ attitudes
■ Questions cannot be misleading and interviewers must remain
completely neutral
■ If done well, researcher
Group Discussion:
● Do you think that the opinions of your friends are good predictors of the
outcomes of the election? Why or why not?
○ No, as people typically surround themselves with like-minded
people
● Try to recall an example in which you were misled by an everyday
observation. Briefly describe it.
○ The weather reports– report two inches of snow but then it does
not snow.
