Statistics is a mathematical science pertaining to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and presentation of data. It is applicable to a wide variety of academic disciplines, from the natural and social sciences to the humanities, government and business. Statistical methods can be used to summarize or describe a collection of data; this is called descriptive statistics. In addition, patterns in the data may be modeled in a way that accounts for randomness and uncertainty in the observations, and are then used to draw inferences about the process or population being studied; this is called inferential statistics. Both descriptive and inferential statistics comprise applied statistics. There is also a discipline called mathematical statistics, which is concerned with the theoretical basis of the subject.

Independent thinking is a key component in your development as an excellent researcher. Only part of this development is accomplished in your preparation of a thesis/dissertation. Successful grant writing requires a certain degree of critical thinking, independent thinking, and last but not least, organization. The purpose of this courses are to assist you in this development. We have three specific aims: � 1. to provide an overview of statistical vocabulary, � 2. to describe statistical methodology and interpretation, and � 3. to introduce statistical computing techniques (SPSS/EXCEL/MINITAB).

1. Field, A. (2009), Discovering Statistics using SPSS, 出版社：華泰文化, 出版日期：2009年07月21日, ISBN：9781847879073.
2. 邱皓政，量化研究與統計分析—SPSS資料分析範例，五南圖書股份有限公司，2010年10月五版.