Basic Statistics for Psychological Science

Basic Statistics for Psychological Science: Successfully Using Statistics to Summarize, Analyze, and Interpret Meaning helps students develop a better understanding of the logic behind statistics, as well as the ways in which that logic can not only be applied to numerical data in the social sciences, but to everyday life decisions. Readers learn how to effectively filter through mass quantities of information to identify significant trends and patterns that reveal truths within the discipline and beyond.

Opening chapters describe the research process and distinguish between different types of research studies utilized in social and behavioral research. In addition, the early chapters demonstrate descriptive statistics by describing how to use data obtained from research to summarize findings, and introduce readers to three key methods of descriptive statistics: frequency distributions, measures of central tendency, and measures of variability. Additional chapters explore inferential statistics through probability, sampling distributions, and hypothesis testing. Students learn about one-sample t tests, independent-measures t tests, and paired-samples t tests. Closing chapters are dedicated to additional inferential statistics with the analysis of variance, correlation and regression, and the chi-square test statistic. Each chapter features learning objectives, key terms, examples, and chapter problems to support the learning experience. Additionally, an appendix in the back of the book provides students with a collection of statistical tables necessary for reference during hypothesis testing.

Highly approachable and designed to help students uncover a deeper appreciation for statistics, Basic Statistics for Psychological Science is an ideal textbook for introductory statistics courses within the social sciences curriculum.