First (and Second) Steps in Statistics

Book excerpt: ′This engagingly written and nicely opinionated book is a blend of friendly introduction and concisely applicable detail. No-one can recall every statistical formula, but if they have this book they will know where to look′ - Professor Jon May, University of Plymouth ′This is one of the best books I have come across for teaching introductory statistics. The illustrative examples are engaging and often humorous and the explanations of ′difficult′ concepts are written in a wonderfully clear and intuitive way′ - Nick Allum, University of Essex Selected as an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice Magazine, January 2010 First (and Second) Steps in Statistics, Second Edition provides a clear and concise introduction to the main statistical procedures used in the social and behavioural sciences and is perfect for the statistics student starting their journey. The rationale and procedure for analyzing data are presented through exciting examples with an emphasis on understanding rather than computation. It is ideally suited for introductory courses in statistics given its gentle beginning, yet progressive treatment of topics. In addition to descriptive statistics, graphs, t-tests, oneway ANOVAs, Chi-square, and simple linear regression, this Second Edition now includes some new, more advanced topic areas as well as a host of additional examples to help students confidently progress through their studies and apply the techniques in lab work, reports and research projects. Key features of this new edition: - the reoganization of the first three chapters giving more attention to univariate statistics and providing more examples to work through at this level - more advanced ′second step′ content has been added on factorial ANOVA and multiple regression - the robust methods chapter from the first edition is now spread throughout the book, and is linked with common teaching practices. - many more examples have been added to enhance the book′s practical potential. - a host of exercises as well as further reading sections at the end of every chapter. An accompanying Web page includes information for each chapter using the statistical packages SPSS and R.