Quantitative Psychological Research: The Complete Student's Companion - Softcover

"The material is organised helpfully for both novices and more experienced readers; the gently paced main text introduces ideas in a clear, intuitive fashion. ... This is a good choice as a text to take a student through the quantitative elements of their undergraduate or conversion degree and perhaps even further as a bookshelf reference book." - Harriet Nock in The Psychologist

"Well written with clear examples, David Clark-Carter is successful in delivering complex ideas in a way that students will be able to understand and apply to their own research." - Charlotte Brownlow, Centre for Childhood, Development and Learning, The Open University, UK

"This book provides a comprehensive, indeed encyclopaedic overview of research methods and statistics, which both novice and experienced researcher alike will find useful as a quick and ready authoritative reference to methods commonly required as part of many undergraduate courses." - Brendan Bunting, Professor of Psychology, University of Ulster, UK

This book expertly guides the reader through all stages involved in undertaking quantitative psychological research, from accessing the relevant literature, through designing and conducting a study, analysing and interpreting data, and finally reporting the research.

This third edition includes two new chapters - on preliminary checking of data and allowing for additional variables when comparing the means of different conditions - and expands on original topics such as choosing sample sizes and how to test for mediation effects. It also contains increased coverage of tests and further detail of techniques and terms which psychologists will meet when working with those in the medical professions. As the chapters focus on choosing appropriate statistical tests and how to interpret and report them (rather than the detailed calculations, which appear in appendices), the reader is able to gain an understanding of a test without being interrupted by the need to understand the complex mathematics behind it. In addition, for the first time, the book is accompanied by an online bank of multiple choice questions.

The book helps readers to:

• Locate reports of relevant existing research
• Design research while adhering to ethical principles
• Identify various methods which can be used to ask questions or observe behaviour
• Choose appropriate samples
• Display and analyse findings numerically and graphically to test hypotheses
• Report psychological research in a variety of ways.

As such, the book is suitable for psychology students and professionals at all levels, and is particularly useful to those working in Health and Clinical Psychology.