Understanding and Using Statistics in Psychology: A Practical Introduction PDF
Preview Understanding and Using Statistics in Psychology: A Practical Introduction
Miles-3487-Prelims.qxd 2/26/2007 5:13 PM Page i Understanding and Using Statistics in Psychology Miles-3487-Prelims.qxd 2/26/2007 5:13 PM Page ii Miles-3487-Prelims.qxd 2/26/2007 5:13 PM Page iii Understanding and Using Statistics in Psychology A Practical Introduction or, how I came to know and love the standard error Jeremy Miles and Philip Banyard Miles-3487-Prelims.qxd 2/26/2007 5:13 PM Page iv © Jeremy Miles and Philip Banyard 2007 First published 2007 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study,or criticism or review,as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,1988,this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form,or by any means,only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers,or in the case of reprographic reproduction,in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers. SAGE Publications Ltd 1 Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y1SP SAGE Publications Inc. 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd B 1/I 1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area Mathura Road, New Delhi 110 044 India SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd 33 Pekin Street #02-01 Far East Square Singapore 048763 Library of Congress Control Number:2006929861 British Library Cataloguing in Publication data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-0-7619-4396-9 ISBN 978-0-7619-4397-6 (pbk) Typeset by C&M Digitals (P) Ltd, Chennai, India Printed in Great Britain by The Alden Press, Witney Printed on paper from sustainable resources Miles-3487-Prelims.qxd 2/26/2007 5:13 PM Page v Contents Acknowledgements vii 1 Introduction:How to get started with statistics 1 2 Descriptive statistics 11 3 Samples,populations and the normal distribution 52 4 Making inferences:confidence limits and statistical significance 80 5 Analysing data from repeated measures experiments 106 6 Analysing data from independent groups:continuous ordinal measures 135 7 Analysing data from independent groups:categorical measures 169 8 Relationships between variables:correlation and regression 194 9 Introducing analysis of variance 237 10 Analysing questionnaires and measurement instruments 269 11 Thinking some more about statistics 300 12 Report writing 321 Appendices 335 References 344 Index 351 Miles-3487-Prelims.qxd 2/26/2007 5:13 PM Page vi Miles-3487-Prelims.qxd 2/26/2007 5:13 PM Page vii Acknowledgements We would like to acknowledge the support of our colleagues in the Psychology Division at Nottingham Trent University and the Health Sciences Department at the University of York who provide a positive and friendly working environment. We would also like to thank the many people who commented on the drafts and so helped in the development of this text. If we are successful in selling the film rights we promise to give them all a walk- on part. We would also like to acknowledge the support and indulgence of Michael Carmichael and Claire Reeve at Sage (and we promised not to mention the thumbscrews). They can be in the film as well if they like. We would like to give name checks (in no particular order) to Nick Neave,(University of Northumbria at Newcastle), Peter White (Southampton University), Keith Bender (Royal Perth Hospital),Linden Ball (University of Lancaster),James Roney (University of California, Santa Barbara), Barry Wright (Selby and York Primary Care Trust), Charles Hulme (University of York),Mark Torrance (Staffordshire University) and Martin Dorahy (Queen's University,Belfast) for allowing us to use and abuse their painstakingly collected data. Jeremy would like to thank Susanne,Alex and Daniel for allowing him to spend hours at a computer writing this text and generally ignoring them. Phil would like to thank Mark Shevlin whose reluctance to tear himself away from the bookies and collaborate with Jeremy gave him the opportunity to be the support act on this text. Phil would also like to give name checks to the darts players of the Gladstone in Carrington,the loyal supporters of Nottingham Forest and to Jeremy for writing most of this and not laughing at him when he didn’t understand something. Miles-3487-Prelims.qxd 2/26/2007 5:13 PM Page viii Miles-3487-Ch-01.qxd 2/27/2007 8:29 PM Page 1 1 Introduction: how to get started with statistics WWhhaatt’’ss iinn tthhiiss cchhaapptteerr?? • The misuse of statistics • Computers and statistics • How to use this text • Which chapter do you want? IINNTTRROODDUUCCTTIIOONN This chapter explains why we need statistics and why you should love them. It explains why it is important to understand statistics,which is principally so that we don’t get fooled by numbers. It also provides a guide to how this book is best used. We realise that most readers will go to the chapter that best suits their immediate needs and are only reading this if it is the last book in their bag and their train has been indefinitely delayed. If you are this position then we hope it gets better soon. SSTTUUDDYYIINNGG SSTTAATTIISSTTIICCSS IISS GGRREEAATT This heading is not an indication of madness on the part of the authors. Statistics really is great and it is a remarkable observation that when students finish their statistics courses after
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