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0 pointsdisgruntledphd214y ago0 comments

I'm sorry but as a graduate trained social scientist (psychologist), this is simply not true (for the social sciences at least).

I do know how to program (R mostly, some python and java) but I am an extreme outlier with my field. In fact, people are ridiculously impressed at my use of awk and regex to extract relevant articles from a CSV file.

I would agree that everyone who studies the social sciences should have some familiarity with coding, but SPSS refutes your claim that it is a necessity. In addition, I had never coded a line before the age of 28 (I'm almost 31 now).

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randomdata14y ago

I'm 30 and I remember being taught the basics (in BASIC, no less) of programming in elementary school. My father talks about programming on punch cards when he was in high school. We both went to the same small rural schools, not even big city institutions.

Given that, I'm with the parent. It does seem kind of amazing that virtually anyone in the workforce today in North America didn't have at least some programming training. Whether they still remember is another matter, but I guess everyone comes from a different background.

hej14y ago

Hm, ok, then I guess my university is the outlier here. I do agree, though, that coding skills are essential for effective statistical analysis and that it should be part of every social scientists' education.

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