Find a research article in any social science journal. Choose an article on a subject of interest to you, and don’t worry about being able to understand all of the statistics that are reported.

a. How much of the article is devoted to statistics per se (as distinct from theory, ideas, discussion, and so on)?

b. Is the research based on a sample from some population? How large is the sample? How were subjects or cases selected? Can the fi ndings be generalized to some population?

c. What variables are used? Which are independent and which are dependent? For each variable, determine the level of measurement.

d. What statistical techniques are used? Try to follow the statistical analysis and see how much you can understand. Save the article and read it again after you fi nish this course to see if you do any better.