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

The book chapters are organized in the sequence that we use for our own statistics courses. We begin with descriptive statistics, and then examine a variety of statistical proceduresfocused on sample means and variance before moving on to correlational methods and nonparametric statistics. 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 checks, a summary and list of key terms, and a set of 20–30 problems.

Ancillaries

Ancillaries for this edition include the following.
■■ MindTap® Psychology: MindTap® Psychology for Gravetter/Wallnau’s Statistics for The Behavioral Sciences, 10th Edition is the digital learning solution that helps instructors engage and transform today’s students into critical thinkers. Through paths of dynamic assignments and applications that you can personalize, real-time course analytics, and an accessible reader, MindTap helps you turn cookie cutter into cutting edge, apathy into engagement, and memorizers into higher-level thinkers.

As an instructor using MindTap you have at your fingertips the right content and unique set of tools curated specifically for your course, such as video tutorials that walk students through various concepts and interactive problem tutorials that provide students opportunities to practice what they have learned, all in an interface designed to improve workflow and save time when planning lessons and course structure. The control to build and personalize your course is all yours, focusing on the most relevant material while also lowering costs for your students. Stay connected and informed in your course through real time student tracking that provides the opportunity to adjust the course as needed based on analytics of interactivity in the course.
■■ Online Instructor’s Manual: The manual includes learning objectives, key terms, a detailed chapter outline, a chapter summary, lesson plans, discussion topics, student activities, “What If” scenarios, media tools, a sample syllabus and an expanded test bank. The learning objectives are correlated with the discussion topics, student activities, and media tools.
■■ Online PowerPoints: Helping you make your lectures more engaging while effectively reaching your visually oriented students, these handy Microsoft PowerPoint®  PowerPoint® slides are updated to reflect the content and organization of the new edition of the text.
■■ Cengage Learning Testing, powered by Cognero®: Cengage Learning Testing, Powered by Cognero®, is a flexible online system that allows you to author, edit, and manage test bank content. You can create multiple test versions in an instant and deliver tests from your LMS in your classroom.