This textbook was written by David W. Stockburger for those studying behavioral sciences. Prior to writing Introductory Statistics: Concepts, Models and Applications, he had been teaching this course for over 20 years. He is the Deputy Director of Academic Assessment for the US Air Force Academy and an Emeritus Professor of Psychology from Missouri State University.
Students attempting this course should have had a semester of college-level algebra. If unsure if your mathematics background is equal to that expectation, Stockburger invites students to check out the Review of Algebra chapter in his text. Students, who are successful, with that material should be successful in the course. Students will need to invest in or borrow a statistical calculator to complete the assignments. Be sure the calculator can do bivariate statistical analysis (look in the handbook for entries on linear regression, regression or correlation).
Course objectives include:
- understanding the relationship between statistics and the scientific method and how it applies to psychology and the behavioral sciences
- read and understand the statistics presented in the professional literature
- calculate and communicate statistical information to others
Stockburger has some interesting comments about mathematics courses and statistics. He admits that this is a course some students try to avoid and for some, who generally do well in math, a course they have trouble with. He recommends students go into the course that a complete understanding of statistics may not be obtained during a first course on the subject. (That was certainly my case.) He recommends students should relax and that further study may be required for some students to more fully grasp the area of statistics. With such a refreshing outlook on this subject, I would hope that his textbook is written differently than other similar texts that do not take such things into consideration.
Another thing that I like (from the reading the Preface anyway) is that with the advances in calculators and statistical software, Stockburger feels that spending a great deal of time on computational formulas is a waste of time. He likens it to all the time spent learning how to calculate square roots instead of using a calculator, the meaning and the usefulness of the square root.
Table of Contents for Introductory Statistics
- A Mayoral Fantasy
- Does Caffeine Make People More Alert?
- Models
- The Language Of Algebra
- Measurement
- Frequency Distributions
- Comparing Frequency Distributions
- Grouped Frequency Distributions
- Models Of Distributions
- The Normal Curve
- The Summation Sign
- Statistics
- Score Transformations
- Linear Transformations
- Regression Models
- Correlation
- Hypothesis Testing
- The Sampling Distribution
- Testing Hypotheses About Single Means
- Experimental Designs
- Analysis Of Crossed Designs
- Nested T-Tests
- The T Distribution
- One And Two-Tailed T-Tests
- Errors In Hypothesis Testing
- Anova
- Chi-Square And Tests Of Contingency Tables
- Testing A Single Correlation
- Normal Curve Areas
- Critical Values For The T Distribution
- Critical Values For The Chi-Square Distribution
- Critical Values For Correlation Coefficients
- Critical Values For The F Distribution
- Bibliography And Web Resources
View this Free Online Material at the source:
Introductory Statistics: Concepts, Models and Applications
