Note on ch. 9-11

The book’s chapters on ANOVA approach the material quite differently than is common in sociology and political science. The main difference is that the authors (who are psychologists) approach the material through the vary traditional lens of contrast coding, whereas sociologists overwhelming use dummy coding (or rarely effect coding¹).

¹ This is where a category’s coefficients all sum to zero.

On my first pass through the material, I tried to make this work but the differences are very great in how they approach the material. Yet we can’t really skip it because understanding ANOVA is important for understanding multilevel models (a weakness for many sociologists).

For that reason, I recommend that my students skim these chapters for the gist of how contrast coding works but mainly stick with what I outline here. I will flesh out these sections more as I continue to teach the course.