Essentials of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences (MindTap Course List) 10th Edition

Book Preface

Many students in the behavioral sciences view the required statistics course as an intimidating obstacle that has been placed in the middle of an otherwise interesting curriculum. They want to learn about psychology and human behavior—not about math and science. As a result, the statistics course is seen as irrelevant to their education and career goals. However, as long as psychology and the behavioral sciences in general are founded in science, knowledge of statistics will be necessary. Statistical procedures provide researchers with objective and systematic methods for describing and interpreting their research results. Scientific research is the system that we use to gather information, and statistics are the tools that we use to distill the information into sensible and justified conclusions. The goal of this book is not only to teach the methods of statistics, but also to convey the basic principles of objectivity and logic that are essential for the behavioral sciences and valuable for decision making in everyday life.

Essentials of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, Tenth Edition, is intended for an undergraduate statistics course in psychology or any of the related behavioral sciences. The overall learning objectives of this book include the following, which correspond to some of the learning goals identified by the American Psychological Association (Noland and the Society for the Teaching of Psychology Statistical Literacy Taskforce, 2012).
1. Calculate and interpret the meaning of basic measures of central tendency and variability.
2. Distinguish between causal and correlational relationships.
3. Interpret data displayed as statistics, graphs, and tables.
4. Select and implement an appropriate statistical analysis for a given research design, problem, or hypothesis.
5. Identify the correct strategy for data analysis and interpretation when testing hypotheses.
6. Select, apply, and interpret appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics.
7. Produce and interpret reports of statistical analyses using APA style.
8. Distinguish between statistically significant and chance findings in data.
9. Calculate and interpret the meaning of basic tests of statistical significance.
10. Calculate and interpret the meaning of confidence intervals.
11. Calculate and interpret the meaning of basic measures of effect size statistics.
12. Recognize when a statistically significant result may also have practical significance.

The book chapters are organized in the sequence that we use for our own statistics courses. We begin with descriptive statistics (Chapters 1–4), then lay the foundation for inferential statistics (Chapters 5–8), and then we examine a variety of statistical procedures focused on sample means and variance (Chapters 9–13) before moving on to correlational methods and nonparametric statistics (Chapters 14 and 15). Information about modifying this sequence is presented in the “To the Instructor” section for individuals who prefer a different organization. Each chapter contains numerous examples (many based on actual research studies), learning objectives and learning checks for each section, a summary and list of key terms, instructions for using SPSS ®, detailed problem-solving tips and demon- strations, and a set of end-of-chapter problems.

Those of you who are familiar with previous editions of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences and Essentials of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences will notice that some changes have been made. These changes are summarized in the “To the Instructor” section. Students who are using this edition should read the section of the preface entitled “To the Student.” In revising this text, our students have been fore-most in our minds. Over the years, they have provided honest and useful feedback, and their hard work and perseverance has made our writing and teaching most rewarding.
We sincerely thank them.