Statistics for Psychology
A Guide for Beginners (and everyone else)
- Roger Watt - The University of Stirling, UK
- Elizabeth Collins - The University of Stirling, UK
This concise, easy-to-understand and highly visual book helps students to understand the principles behind the many statistical practices. This text helps students to build a mental map to enable them to work their way through tests and procedures with a better level of understanding (and ultimately feel more confident and get better grades). Statistical analysis will also be covered in the book in the same simple-to-follow way, without messy details or complicated formulae. However, this approach does not lead to simple understanding. Instead it allows students to really grasp how to use, and be creative with, statistics.
Key features:
- A principles-based approach, helping students to apply and adapt their skills to a variety of situation
- Test out principles in practice on the companion website with statistics scenarios
- Carefully designed graphics to explain statistical principles
- Links to relevant sources / further reading for statistical packages, so the book can be used as a portal to/ springboard for further study.
- Developed in conjunction with students means this book answers the key challenges students face.
- Based on a BPS commended programme
Supported by a wealth of online resources at www.sagepub.co.uk/statisticsforpsychology
Supplements
For students:
• Brand new animations for every chapter that either summarizes the chapter or explores a difficult area.
• More detail online – key theories or difficult concepts are marked in the book and explored in further detail online.
• ‘Work With Us’ – a whole suite of activities have been created for you to work through as you read the book.
• A data generator for you to practice with and work out your answers to ‘Work With Us’.
• Answers to the ‘Your Turn’ feature in the book
• Online bibliography
• Glossary flashcards for difficult terms,
• Links to authors’ Brawstat website tool which gives students real-life practice of statistics.
https://sites.google.com/site/brawstatsguide/home/students-and-brawstats
For lecturers:
• Lecturer’s guide to teaching statistics that maps the books content to traditional approaches to teaching statistics for psychology.
This book is great. It is clear and accessible, yet comprehensive and integrated. Students can make use of it at any level of their education because it is layered or you can skim for the essentials or delve into the depths. A fabulous addition to the market.!
I love the fact that the book is so concisely and clearly written, yet with sufficiently detailed and with great suggestions for further reading. For me, this makes it the preferred statistics book; easy to approach and to keep in regular use!
This book will be a great help in making statistics accessible to all. In addition to guiding the reader through theory and statistical formulae, it provides really helpful examples and explanations. A must-have book for any statistics bookshelf!
This book is great! It’s written in a way that is both engaging and easy to follow and avoids all the stress inducing jargon of most other stats textbooks available. I cannot recommend this enough to anyone starting out in stats or those just needing a bit of a refresher course!
I am a firm believer that many of students' difficulties with statistics learning stem from a lack of understanding about the bigger picture of statistics and research in psychology. This book explicitly emphasises the importance of the bigger picture of statistics, so students understand why they need to learn statistics, not just how to run particular tests. The book is visually interesting, well structured to ease students in, and written in an accessible language that makes statistics seem much more manageable.
“This is the statistics textbook equivalent of vegetable soup: goes down easily and it’s good for you. This is a great text for a new generation of Psychology researchers who aim to do reproducible work; the book clearly and logically connects study design to analysis, while instilling good research practices.”
A well thought out book, written in clear easy to understand language. By using a single example of a research question, (whether a risk-taking affects exam performance) the authors introduce students to some of the basic statistical tests as well as data manipulation and understanding the relationships between variables. High on theory and low on math, this is a good introductory textbook for first-year students.
I love this book, it is very well structured and is easy to follow. I think one reason for this is because it uses an example hypothesis throughout the book, thus it leaves no place for confusion. More importantly, its explicit and simple wording helps to understand the frightening topic of statistics better, takes away the fear and makes statistics a very interesting part of psychology.
This is an outstanding book. Transitioning from my old and standard psychology statistics textbook required by my class to this textbook was the best thing I could have ever done. The format is easily approachable and truly engages the reader, making the learning process much quicker and more enjoyable. Not only did my grades improve but I now also have a greater long-lasting understanding of the mechanisms and applications of psychology statistics within my own research.
An engaging text for psychology students learning foundational statistics. Of great value to the beginner student, is the initial section answering: Why do we need statistics? An incredibly common question amongst psychology students who aim to be consumers, rather than producers of statistics. This book helps students to develop an appreciation for the worth of statistics in their professional life, enabling graduates to become more confident and competent in tackling real community issues.
I firmly believe the combination of presentation elements will aid students in developing their statistical literacy. The fonts and icons remind me of a study bullet-journal, and I think this will encourage students to be more reflective in their statistics learning. This textbook also includes a companion website for students, with practice questions and answers, videos, and relevant articles. It encourages curiosity and a sense of discovery, critical traits in the social sciences.
The significance of Statistics for Psychology: A beginner’s guide is that it provides an easy-to-read style of material structured to build on previous knowledge. The student is guided through the conceptual complexities that arise with the study of statistics, as it challenges their day-to-day way of thinking. Given the relevancy of the textbook by including new statistics as well as null hypothesis significance tests, I expect it to have longevity in the university classroom. I highly recommend this text for introductory psychology statistics classes.
