Course Requirement: BYO laptops, with a major statistical package (either SPSS, SAS or Stata or R) pre-installed. The course notes show how to undertake the analyses in all of these packages. A (free) trial version of SPSS can be downloaded and is available for 14 days at: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/analytics/spss/downloads.html (or Google "SPSS Trial"). Alternatively, graduate students can purchase their own copy of the SPSS Grad Pack. (Google "SPSS Grad Pack" for more information.) If you cannot bring your own suitably configured laptop, please contact ACSPRI staff at Summer2013@acspri.org.au prior to enrolment.
Based on the General Linear Model, least-squares multiple regression is a general technique through which one can analyse the relationship between a dependent variable and a set of independent or predictor variables. The most important uses of the technique are:
1. to find the best linear prediction equation and evaluate its accuracy;
2. to control for other confounding variations in order to evaluate the contribution of a specific variable or set of variables;
3. to find structural relations and provide explanations for them; and
4. to estimate population parameters and test hypotheses about the population.
This course provides an introduction to, and the fundamentals of multiple regression, covering enough of the statistical material for the intelligent use of the technique. The approach is informal and applied rather than emphasising proofs of relevant theorems. The course begins with a review of bivariate regression and extends the relevant principles to the case of multiple regression. Particular attention is given to the application of multiple regression to substantive problems in the social sciences. By the end of the course, the student will have a knowledge of the principles of multiple regression, and the ability to conduct regression analyses, interpret the results, and to inspect elementary regression diagnostics to test the underlying model assumptions. This course provides the foundations necessary for progression to ‘Applied Multiple Regression Analysis’, and to subsequent advanced-level courses in structural equation modelling and log-linear modelling.
David John Gow is a consultant in research methods and statistics and their application in the social sciences. He has taught in many ACSPRI Summer and Winter Programs
Participants should have completed an introductory statistics course covering at least some of the syllabus of ‘Introduction to Statistics’. A significant part of the course is the translation of the principles of multiple regression to practical data analysis using a statistical package. Some experience with a statistical package, such as SPSS, Stata or SAS, or the spreadsheet Excel is desirable.
The instructor’s bound, book-length course notes will serve as the course text.
Nearly all good social statistics texts treat regression analysis and thus constitute suitable reference material. The following short monographs provide short, clear and technically sound coverage.
• Lewis-Beck, M., Applied Regression: An Introduction, Sage, 1980.
• Achen, C., Interpreting and Using Regression, Sage, 1982.
• Berry, William and Stanley Feldman, Multiple Regression in Practice, Sage, 1985.
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