Statistics in psychology : explanations without equations / Stephen Jones.

By:

Jones, Stephen, 1964-

Material type: Text

TextPublication details: Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.Description: xvi, 220 p. : ill. ; 22 cmISBN:

0230247490 (pbk.)
9780230247499 (pbk.)

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

150.15195 JON

Review: Drawing on scenarios, examples from everyday life and actual psychological studies, this handy guide uses words rather than numbers to introduce the key statistical concepts that all psychology students have to learn. Jones avoids calculations and formulae wherever possible and instead focuses on explaining the principles in a clear, straightforward and, above all, non-numerical style. This novel approach makes the book a must for psychology students who want to understand the principles of statistics without dealing with tricky equations. \'... an excellent, gentle introduction to the area of statistics for any student new to psychology and who may suffer from a \'fear of numbers\'. A great emphasis on everyday examples and actual psychological studies makes this book an invaluable addition to any student\'s or lecturer\'s bookshelf.\'-Dr. Jean-Francois Delvenne, University of Leeds, UK \'An excellent and student-friendly introductory text. The use of non-numerical examples and psychologically based scenarios is a refreshing and reassuring approach to introducing a topic that many students regard with trepidation.\'-Dr. Judith A. Smith, University of Liverpool, UK--BOOK JACKET.

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Copy number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Standard Loan	Moylish Library Main Collection	150.15195 JON (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available		39002100478503

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

How do you choose the appropriate statistical method for any given research task? What are the features that discern one statistical method from another, and for which research projects are they appropriate to use? Written specifically with the undergraduate psychology student in mind and for those who desire an explanation for the use of statistics in psychological research without the mathematics, this refreshing and much-needed introduction is invaluable for any psychology students who 'don't get numbers'. Breaking away from the traditional, numerical approaches, Jones delivers an engaging and insightful read into the rationale behind the use of statistics, drawing upon non-numerical examples and scenarios from both psychological literature and everyday life to explain key statistical concepts. Learn about the methods for testing populations and samples, standard errors, inferential and descriptive statistics as well as variables and participants.

This is an ideal companion to core textbooks and will serve a clearer understanding of statistical methods in psychology. By reading this book students can hope to gain a better sense of what makes empirically valid research and learn to critically evaluate facts and figure in any presented research. The foundations of psychology's claims are the empiricism of well-conducted and reliable data.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Drawing on scenarios, examples from everyday life and actual psychological studies, this handy guide uses words rather than numbers to introduce the key statistical concepts that all psychology students have to learn. Jones avoids calculations and formulae wherever possible and instead focuses on explaining the principles in a clear, straightforward and, above all, non-numerical style. This novel approach makes the book a must for psychology students who want to understand the principles of statistics without dealing with tricky equations. \'... an excellent, gentle introduction to the area of statistics for any student new to psychology and who may suffer from a \'fear of numbers\'. A great emphasis on everyday examples and actual psychological studies makes this book an invaluable addition to any student\'s or lecturer\'s bookshelf.\'-Dr. Jean-Francois Delvenne, University of Leeds, UK \'An excellent and student-friendly introductory text. The use of non-numerical examples and psychologically based scenarios is a refreshing and reassuring approach to introducing a topic that many students regard with trepidation.\'-Dr. Judith A. Smith, University of Liverpool, UK--BOOK JACKET.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

List of illustrations (p. x)
Preface (p. xiii)
Acknowledgements (p. xvi)
chapter 1 Variables and participants (p. 1)
1.1 Variables and their measurement (p. 3)
1.1.1 Concepts (p. 3)
1.1.2 Everyday examples (p. 5)
1.1.3 From the literature (p. 8)
1.1.4 Narrative (p. 18)
1.1.5 Further reading (p. 21)
1.2 Research design (p. 23)
1.2.1 Concepts (p. 23)
1.2.2 Everyday examples (p. 25)
1.2.3 From the literature (p. 27)
1.2.4 Narrative (p. 30)
1.2.5 Further reading (p. 34)
1.3 Summary (p. 35)
Chapter 1 self-test (p. 37)
chapter 2 Descriptive statistics (p. 39)
2.1 Summarizing findings via measures of central tendency (p. 41)
2.1.1 Concepts (Mode, Median and Mean) (p. 41)
2.1.2 Everyday examples (p. 43)
2.1.3 From the literature (p. 47)
2.1.4 Narrative (p. 50)
2.1.5 Further reading (p. 51)
2.2 Summarizing findings via measures of dispersion (p. 52)
2.2.1 Concepts (Range and Interquartile range, Variance, Standard deviation) (p. 52)
2.2.2 Everyday examples (p. 54)
2.2.3 From the literature (p. 56)
2.2.4 Narrative (p. 59)
2.2.5 Further reading (p. 61)
2.3 Summarizing findings via percentiles and standard scores (p. 62)
2.3.1 Concepts (Percentiles and Z-scores) (p. 62)
2.3.2 Everyday examples (p. 63)
2.3.3 From the literature (p. 67)
2.3.4 Narrative (p. 69)
2.3.5 Further reading (p. 71)
2.4 Summary (p. 72)
Chapter 2 self-test (p. 74)
chapter 3 Prelude to testing (p. 76)
3.1 Populations, samples and standard errors (p. 78)
3.1.1 Concepts (p. 78)
3.1.2 Examples and illustrations (p. 81)
3.1.3 Further reading (p. 84)
3.2 Hypothesis testing, probability and the statistical significance (p. 85)
3.2.1 Concepts (p. 85)
3.2.2 Examples and illustrations (p. 87)
3.2.3 Further reading (p. 91)
3.3 Parametric assumptions (p. 92)
3.3.1 Concepts (p. 92)
3.3.2 Examples and illustrations (p. 95)
3.3.3 Further reading (p. 99)
3.3.4 Narrative (p. 100)
3.5 Summary (p. 103)
Chapter 3 self-test (p. 105)
chapter 4 Inferential statistics (p. 107)
4.1 Parametric testing (p. 110)
4.1.1 Concepts (Difference between, Difference within, Correlation) (p. 110)
4.1.2 Everyday examples (p. 112)
4.1.3 From the literature (p. 120)
4.1.4 Narrative (p. 135)
4.1.5 Further reading (p. 141)
4.2 Non-parametric testing (ordinal) (p. 142)
4.2.1 Concepts (Difference between, Difference within, Correlation) (p. 142)
4.2.2 Everyday examples (p. 144)
4.2.3 From the literature (p. 150)
4.2.4 Narrative (p. 165)
4.2.5 Further reading (p. 170)
4.3 Non-parametric testing (nominal) (p. 171)
4.3.1 Concepts (Difference between, Difference within) (p. 171)
4.3.2 Everyday examples (p. 172)
4.3.3 From the literature (p. 177)
4.3.4 Narrative (p. 190)
4.3.5 Further reading (p. 193)
4.4 Summary (p. 194)
Chapter 4 self-test (p. 195)
And finally... (p. 198)
Appendix (p. 200)
Glossary (p. 202)
References (p. 210)
Answers to self-tests (p. 215)
Index (p. 219)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

STEPHEN JONES is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of the West of England, UK, where he has been teaching Experimental Psychology, Research Methods and Statistics for the past ten years. He is a Chartered Psychologist, Chartered Scientist, Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
STEPHEN JONES is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of the West of England, UK, where he has been teaching Experimental Psychology, Research Methods and Statistics for the past ten years. He is a Chartered Psychologist, Chartered Scientist, Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.