Statistics in Plain English

By Timothy C. Urdan

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• ISBN: 978-0-8058-5241-7
• Binding: Paperback
• Published by: Psychology Press
• Publication Date: 22nd February 2005
• Pages: 200

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About the Book

Statistics in Plain English, 2/e provides a brief, simple overview of statistics to help readers gain a better understanding of how statistics work and how to interpret them correctly. It presents brief explanations of statistical concepts and techniques in simple, everyday language. Each self-contained chapter consists of three sections. The first describes the statistic, including how it is used and what information it provides. The second section reviews how it works, how to calculate the formula, the strengths and weaknesses of the technique, and the conditions needed for its use. The final section provides examples that use and interpret the statistic. A glossary of terms and symbols is also included.

New features in the second edition include:
* an interactive CD with PowerPoint presentations and problems for each chapter including an overview of the problem's solution;
* new chapters on basic research concepts including sampling, definitions of different types of variables, and basic research designs and one on nonparametric statistics;
* more graphs and more precise descriptions of each statistic; and
* a discussion of confidence intervals.

This brief paperback is an ideal supplement for statistics, research methods, courses that use statistics, or as a reference tool to refresh one's memory about key concepts. The actual research examples are from psychology, education, and other social and behavioral sciences.

Reviews

This book helps students learn to analyze and interpret research data using SPSS 15.0 by demonstrating how to produce a variety of statistics reviewed in intermediate statistics courses. The new edition features SPSS 15.0, but the book can also be used with earlier or future versions of SPSS. Each chapter introduces several related statistics and provides instructions on how to run them and interpret the outputs. Each statistic is described in a user-friendly, nontechnical manner. The book reviews research designs and how to assess the reliability and validity of data. The authors demonstrate how to choose the appropriate statistic based on the research design, use SPSS to answer research questions, and interpret and write about SPSS outputs. The examples use real data and are contained on the book’s CD.

SPSS for Intermediate Statistics, Third Edition, provides:

• The key SPSS windows needed to perform the analyses

• Complete outputs of what students can expect to produce with call-out boxes to highlight what to focus on

• Interpretation sections and questions to help students better understand the output and write about the results

• Charts and tables to help select an appropriate statistic and interpret statistical significance and effect sizes

• Lab assignments organized around the way students proceed when they prepare their data for a research project

• Appendices on getting started with SPSS, a brief review of basic statistics, and answers to the odd-numbered interpretation questions

• Two data sets on the book’s CD along with syntax, and outputs, for those who prefer this format.

Highlights of the new edition include:

• References SPSS Version 15 throughout

• Each chapter now includes four extra SPSS problems for additional testing of the concepts

• A new chapter on HLM analysis with SPSS

• Post-hoc tests in addition to contrasts in the Factorial ANOVA and ANCOVA chapter

• New coverage of odd ratios and effect sizes for logistic and discriminant analyses

• How to compute and interpret post-hoc power is now demonstrated for each statistic

• An expanded appendix on getting started with SPPS with instructions on how to: create a working file from the book’s CD; open and start SPSS and use the data editor; set up one’s computer to print the syntax or log along with each output; work with the output; export the files to Excel, Word, HTML, or PDF; convert variables to standardized variables; select cases; and split and merge files.

This inexpensive paperback is intended as a supplemental text for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses on intermediate/advanced statistics and/or research methods taught in departments of psychology, education, and other applied and health sciences.

Table of Contents

Contents: Preface. Introduction to Social Science Research and Terminology. Measures of Central Tendency. Measures of Variability. The Normal Distribution. Standardization and z Scores. Standard Errors. Statistical Significance, Effect Size, and Confidence Intervals. Correlation. t Tests. One-Way Analysis of Variance. Factorial Analysis of Variance. Repeated-Measures Analysis of Variance. Regression. The Chi Square Test of Independence. Appendices.

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