Workshop: Surviving the Jungle of Statistics – An Introductory Course into Quantitative Methods Using R

Surviving the Jungle of Statistics – An Introductory Course Into Quantitative Methods

You don’t know how to start analysing your data? You feel uncomfortable with statistics? You feel lost in result sections of scientific papers and often skip them? Mentioning words such as t-test or ANOVA confuses you?

Don’t worry, that is quite common. A lot of us fear statistics and begin to sweat by the sole mentioning of quantitative methods. One of the major problems when dipping into empirical research is that the very foundation of statistical knowledge is lacking. Building on such a shaky foundation is not very reliable. Hence, the present workshop transfers the very basic knowledge in quantitative methods that is necessary to analyse, present, and interpret data. More importantly it enables you to understand and evaluate the soundness of others’ analyses in scientific publications. It provides necessary basic tools to survive the jungle of statistics. You will see, once you are equipped in the right way, statistics can be a funny adventure.
 

Target Group and Objectives

This workshop addresses researchers at the early stage of their scientific career, with very little knowledge in statistics. However, a basic knowledge in the foundations of R and working with R syntax is useful.
 

This workshop aims to transfer the very basic knowledge about descriptive and inferential statistics. The main objective is to convey an essential sense of data handling. In a step by step approach, the workshop aims to enable researchers to decide what the appropriate statistical methods for their research questions are and to apply the respective analyses using R.

Methods

In the workshop, I will present basic knowledge about quantitative methods and data handling. A major part of the workshop is to provide hands-on experience with R. Therefore, I encourage participants to bring their own data for analysis.

Content

• General aspects regarding data handling
• Descriptive statistics
• The rational of regression analysis as foundation of basic statistical analyses
• Presentation of useful R packages
• Power calculation and sample size estimation in R
• Selection, application, and interpretation of basic statistical tests using R

   

Location, Date and Time

Thursday, 4 July 2019, 9.00 am - 5.00 pm
Friday, 5 July 2019, 9.00 am - 4.00 pm

All registered participants will be informed of the location by email one week before the event.

Fees and Registration

This workshop is open to a limited number of participants. The registration deadline is 19 June 2019.

Please note that you should notify us before the registration deadline if you are unable to attend the workshop. Otherwise the full fee will be charged.
Please let the Personnel Development and Planning Office know if you will not be attending. There are often waiting lists for the workshops, and this will give one of your colleagues the chance to attend. In addition, if we can fill the vacancy with someone from the waiting list, no cancellation charges will apply for you.

To sign up for this workshop, please click "Register" at the bottom of this page. For any further information please contact Elke Rittersbacher (elke.rittersbacher@wu.ac.at, Ext. 4448).

The course fee is €40.

Trainer

		Mag. Benjamin Serfas   Benjamin Serfas is assistant professor of economic and consumer psychology at the Department of Computer Science and Applied Cognitive Science at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. He holds a DSc in psychology from the University of Vienna. In his research he empirically investigates psychological processes underlying consumer behaviour. His main research interests are: self-regulation, impulsive buying, (visual) attention, and non-conscious processing.