Psychology Statistics For Dummies

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Analyse this - get up to speed on statistical analysis core concepts, such as probability and inference, hypothesis testing, distributions, Z-scores and effect sizes In some cases, you refer to variables as independent variables even when you’re not directly manipulating them. This type of independent variable is a quasi-independent variable. Dependent variables This text covers all the topics I would want to cover in my statistics course, but there is not an index and/or glossary. I believe having an index is so important for students as they may not even know in what chapter to reference a term so the index would be invaluable for them in finding information. This work was created as part of the University Libraries’ Open Educational Resources Initiative at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. This book is organized into Units, which are broken down into chapters. The unit and chapter organization makes sense for coverage of the material. In my introductory statistics course we do not cover linear regression, so I cover correlation earlier in my class. Since correlation is grouped into the Unit 3 (Additional Hypothesis Tests) it makes it a little more difficult to move out of this section and integrate elsewhere, but it is not a major concern for me.

Statistics All-in-One For Dummies Statistics All-in-One For Dummies

I am torn about the use of the X-bar to represent the sample mean. For students who will be moving on to more advanced statistics the use of X-bar would be helpful, but there is a small proportion of my students who move on to more advanced statistics. The norm in social statistics is now to use the M for the sample mean and my students may be confused as they move into the research methods lab course and are presented with M instead of X-bar. MD5 of a better version of this file (if applicable). Fill this in if there is another file that closely matches this file (same edition, same file extension if you can find one), which people should use instead of this file. If you know of a better version of this file outside of Anna’s Archive, then please upload it.This textbook is as culturally inclusive as any statistics textbook. This is an area where the professor will want to supplement if they espouse the APA Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major 2.0. I recommend Kenneth Keith's book Culture Across the Curriculum as a starting point. Variables apply to experimental investigations. The independent variable is the variable the experimenter manipulates or changes. The dependent variable is the variable being tested and measured in an experiment, and is 'dependent' on the independent variable. Analyse by inference - master key methods in inferential statistics, including techniques for analysing independent groups designs and repeated-measures research designs The majority of the content in the text seems accurate. There is an error in the effect size formula for Chapter 9 - it shows the calculation for t instead of d. Some of the images are a bit blurry. They were still interpretable, but it was a bit distracting. Navigation was easy – especially as I read it on my e-reader – which I think will be a big benefit to students (using tablets, e-readers, PCs, or printing the text).

Statistics in the Psychological Sciences Introduction to Statistics in the Psychological Sciences

The text can be divided into smaller sections as written. It would be hard to selectively chose sections to cover and not others because of the comprehensive nature of the material. However, these chapters can be selectively used if an instructor wanted to supplement their course without adapting the entire text. I am not advocating this, as I think the text would be suitable as a whole for a course, but it is possible. Statistics changes little over time, so this book can be a standard for years to come. If APA format needs to be adjusted or examples (in the text and end-of-chapter problems) need to be updated, that can be easily done. In Chapter 2, there are graphs with iMacs from the 1990s. I've seen this graphic in other texts and it always throws me off because most students were not yet born when these computers were out. Also, I've found that psych stats books don't actually have examples from psychology. This book is no exception. Very few examples, if any, that I came across were from the psychological sciences.

A z-score describes the position of a raw score in terms of its distance from the mean when measured in standard deviation units. It is also known as a standard score because it allows the comparison of scores on different variables by standardizing the distribution. The z-score is positive if the value lies above the mean and negative if it lies below the mean.

Psychology Statistics For Dummies Cheat Sheet (UK Edition)

Interval: If you measure a variable at the interval level of measurement, it has the measurement properties of magnitude and equal intervals. In general, the content was accurate. There were a few instances where the material was oddly worded or a confusing. For example, when covering hypothesis testing, an example claims that because temperature is allowed to vary 1 degree in either direction means that the standard deviation must be 1. This is not how standard deviation is defined and can be misleading to students. Later in the text, when interpreting a correlation of -1, the authors state “as X goes up by some amount, Y goes down by the same amount, consistently”. This is an inaccurate interpretation of correlation. X and Y are more than likely on different scales, so they would not change by the same amount. This is a very important distinction as correlation quantifies the relationship of standardized scores, while slope considers the scales of the variables. It was easy to single out one or two cases because the almost the entirety of the text is accurate. The primary way the text is organized is by chapter, with each chapter covering a different topic. Since it is a *.pdf the easiest way for the instructor to make it modular is with a *.pdf editor. This is not provided by the authors.

Dependent variables

Correlate that - get the lowdown on common procedures for defining relationships between variables, including linear regressions, associations between categorical data and more The content in this text is already dated as there is no integration of statistical software output, which I think should be included for descriptive statistics and hypothesis testing. Using statistical software is prevalent in the workplace and academic settings so the opportunity for students to view and interpret output is important. Understanding statistics is a requirement for obtaining and making the most of a degree in psychology, a fact of life that often takes first year psychology students by surprise. Filled with jargon-free explanations and real-life examples, Psychology Statistics For Dummies makes the often-confusing world of statistics a lot less baffling, and provides you with the step-by-step instructions necessary for carrying out data analysis.