Statistical Methods for Psychology

STATISTICAL METHODS FOR PSYCHOLOGY surveys the statistical techniques commonly used in the behavioral and social sciences, especially psychology and education. This book has two underlying themes that are more or less independent of the statistical hypothesis tests that are the main content of the book. The first theme is the importance of looking at the data before formulating a hypothesis. With this in mind, the author discusses, in detail, plotting data, looking for outliers, and checking assumptions (Graphical displays are used extensively). The second theme is the importance of the relationship between the statistical test to be employed and the theoretical questions being posed by the experiment. To emphasize this relationship, the author uses real examples to help the student understand the purpose behind the experiment and the predictions made by the theory. Although this book is designed for students at the intermediate level or above, it does not assume that students have had either a previous course in statistics or a course in math beyond high-school algebra.