ABSTRACT

With a clear and engaging writing style and strong examples from the real world, this text covers current statistical techniques at an introductory level and emphasizes the clear presentation of results to a variety of audiences, making the course more useful to students and their careers. Interconnection features among chapters help students understand how all of the techniques fit together. Using varied data sets, the text features a highly rated companion website that includes videos of the author offering step-by-step explanations of how to carry out the techniques, interpret the results, and present them to varied audiences.

NEW TO THIS EDITION

  • More inter-chapter connections have been added to improve students’ conceptual learning.
  • Several examples (on immigration, health, and civil rights) now permeate the text for easy comparison of techniques across chapters.
  • The section on managing data is considerably expanded to cover topics such as finding new sources of data, dealing with missing data, and how to combine data reliably.
  • Very current examples from the scholarly literature from criminology, education, and health show how researchers use each chapter’s techniques to tell compelling stories.
  • Instructors can choose from a variety of greatly expanded materials to enhance their lectures: engaging animations of key concepts; dynamic demonstrations of how statistics change in line with the data; short lectures on difficult-to-explain topics; and in-class exercises that will help students learn how to make sense of statistical results.

chapter 1|54 pages

Life in a Data-Laden Age

Finding and Managing Datasets

chapter 2|48 pages

The Art of Visual Storytelling

Creating Accurate Tables and Graphs

chapter 3|53 pages

Summarizing Center and Diversity

Basic Descriptive Statistics

chapter 4|49 pages

Using Sample Crosstabs to Talk About Populations

The Chi-square Test

chapter 5|48 pages

Using a Sample Mean or Proportion to Talk About a Population

Confidence Intervals

chapter 6|37 pages

Using Multiple Sample Means to Talk About Populations

T–Tests and ANOVA

chapter 7|42 pages

Give me One Good Reason Why

Bivariate Correlation and Regression

chapter 8|25 pages

Using Sample Slopes to Talk About Populations

Inference and Regression

chapter 9|23 pages

It's All Relative

Dichotomies as Independent Variables in Regression

chapter 10|41 pages

Above and Beyond

The Logic of Controlling and the Power of Nested Regression Models

chapter 11|24 pages

Some Slopes are Bigger than Others

Calculating and Interpreting Beta Coefficients

chapter 12|35 pages

Different Slopes for Different Folks

Interaction Effects

chapter 13|35 pages

Explaining Dichotomous Outcomes

Logistic Regression

chapter 14|30 pages

Visualizing Causal Stories

Path Analysis

chapter 15|47 pages

Questioning the Greatness of Straightness

Nonlinear Relationships

chapter 16|20 pages

Problems and Prospects

Regression Diagnostics, Advanced Techniques, and Where to Go Now