Dr Paul Röttger
Departmental Lecturer
Paul works at the intersection of NLP and the social sciences. His research focuses on the safety and societal impacts of large language models. He is also an Associate Member of Nuffield College.
Key Information
Course details
Core course for MSc SDS and option paper for MSc SSI, Hilary term
Core course for MSc SDS and option paper for MSc SSI, Hilary term
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Tutor
Dr Paul Röttger
Dr Paul Röttger
About
Applied Analytical Statistics teaches students about the statistical methods used by social scientists to describe, analyse, and interpret quantitative data. The course serves as an introduction to statistical thinking and core techniques such as regression, focusing on application rather than mathematical foundations. Some basic knowledge of algebra and probability is expected. All programming is done in R.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students will be well equipped to design and execute statistical analyses to answer social science research questions, and present results in research article format. In particular, students will have learned about:
Statistical thinking as a framework for learning from data.
- How to describe and summarise data effectively.
- How to express confidence and uncertainty.
- How to draw valid conclusions from data.
Regression as a tool for analysing the relationship between things we observe in the world.
- How to design the right regression model for your research.
- How to evaluate model fit and assumptions.
- How to interpret regression results and distinguish cause from correlation.
Academic writing for quantitative / computational social science research.
- How to present and discuss results of statistical analysis.
- How to structure a research paper.
Topics
- Describing and Summarising Data
- Statistical Inference & Uncertainty
- Hypothesis Testing
- Univariate Linear Regression
- Multivariate Linear Regression
- Logistic Regression
- Causality
- Research Paper Writing
Course Tutor