Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics 6th Edition

Book Preface

With another new edition (now the sixth), I welcome you to what I hope will be, in all ways, a good learning experience. I am overwhelmed by the opportunity to continue to revise this book and the pleasure it brings me and, I hope, brings you. What many students of introductory statistics (be they new to the subject or just reviewing the material) have in common (at least at the beginning of their studies) is a relatively high level of anxiety, the origin of which is, more often than not, what they’ve heard from their fellow students. Often, a small part of what they have heard is true—learning statistics takes an investment of time and effort (and there’s the occasional monster for a teacher). But most of what they’ve heard (and where most of the anxiety comes from)—that statistics is unbearably difficult and confusing—is just not true. Thousands of fear-struck students have succeeded where they thought they would fail. They did it by taking one thing at a time, pacing themselves, seeing illustrations of basic principles as they are applied to reallife settings, and even having some fun along the way. That’s what I tried to do in writing the first five editions of Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics, and I tried even harder in completing this revision. After a great deal of trial and error, and some successful and many unsuccessful attempts, and a ton of feedback from students and teachers at all levels of education, I have attempted to teach statistics in a way that I (and many of my students) think is unintimidating and informative. I have tried my absolute best to incorporate all of that experience into this book. What you will learn from this book is the information you need to understand what the field and study of basic statistics is all about. You’ll learn about the fundamental ideas and the most commonly used techniques to organize and make sense out of data. There’s very little theory (but some), and there are few mathematical proofs or discussions of the rationale for certain mathematical routines. Why isn’t this theory stuff and more in Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics? Simple. Right now, you don’t need it. It’s not that I don’t think it’s important. Rather, at this point and time in your studies, I want to offer you material at a level I think you can understand and learn with some reasonable amount of effort, while at the same time not be scared off from taking additional courses in the future. I (and your professor) want you to succeed. So, if you are looking for a detailed unraveling of the derivation of the analysis of variance F ratio, go find another good book from SAGE (I’ll be glad to refer you to one). But if you want to learn why and how statistics can work for you, you’re in the right place. This book will help you understand the material you read in journal articles, explain what the results of many statistical analyses mean, and teach you how to perform basic statistical tasks. And, if you want to talk about any aspect of teaching or learning statistics, feel free to contact me. You can do this through my email address at school ([email protected]). Good luck, and let me know how I can improve this book to even better meet the needs of the beginning statistics student. And, if you want the data files that will help you succeed, either go to the Sage website at edge.sagepub.com/salkind6e, or contact me via email and let me know the edition you are using. And a (Little) Note to the Instructor I would like to share two things. First, I applaud your efforts at teaching basic statistics. Although this topic may be easier for some students, most find the material very challenging. Your patience and hard work are appreciated by all, and if there is anything I can do to help, please send me a note. Second, Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics is not meant to be a dumbed-down book similar to others you may have seen. Nor is the title meant to convey anything other than the fact that many students new to the subject are very anxious about what’s to come. This is not an academic or textbook version of a “book for dummies” or anything of the kind. I have made every effort to address students with the respect they deserve, not to patronize them, and to ensure that the material is approachable. How well I did in these regards is up to you, but I want to convey my very clear intent that this book contain the information needed in an introductory course, and even though my approach involves some humor, nothing about my intent is anything other than serious. Thank you.

Brief Contents

A Note to the Student: Why I Wrote This Book Acknowledgments And Now, About the Sixth Edition About the Author PART I Yippee! I’m in Statistics 1. Statistics or Sadistics? It’s Up to You PART II ∑igma Freud and Descriptive Statistics 2. Means to an End: Computing and Understanding Averages 3. Vive la Différence: Understanding Variability 4. A Picture Really Is Worth a Thousand Words 5. Ice Cream and Crime: Computing Correlation Coefficients 6. Just the Truth: An Introduction to Understanding Reliability and Validity PART III Taking Chances for Fun and Profit 7. Hypotheticals and You: Testing Your Questions 8. Are Your Curves Normal? Probability and Why It Counts PART IV Significantly Different: Using Inferential Statistics 9. Significantly Significant: What It Means for You and Me 10. Only the Lonely: The One-Sample Z-Test 11. t(ea) for Two: Tests Between the Means of Different Groups 12. t(ea) for Two (Again): Tests Between the Means of Related Groups 13. Two Groups Too Many? Try Analysis of Variance 14. Two Too Many Factors: Factorial Analysis of Variance—A Brief Introduction 15. Cousins or Just Good Friends? Testing Relationships Using the Correlation Coefficient 16. Predicting Who’ll Win the Super Bowl: Using Linear Regression PART V More Statistics! More Tools! More Fun! 17. What to Do When You’re Not Normal: Chi-Square and Some Other Nonparametric Tests 18. Some Other (Important) Statistical Procedures You Should Know About 19. Data Mining: An Introduction to Getting the Most Out of Your BIG Data 20. A Statistical Software Sampler PART VI Ten Things (Times Two) You’ll Want to Know and Remember 21. The 10 (or More) Best (and Most Fun) Internet Sites for Statistics Stuff 22. The Ten Commandments of Data Collection Appendix A: SPSS in Less Than 30 Minutes Appendix B: Tables
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Appendix C: Data Sets Appendix D: Answers to Practice Questions Appendix E: Math: Just the Basics Appendix F: The Reward: The Brownie Recipe Glossary Index