Summary
Contents
Subject index
Making Sense of Statistical Methods in Social Research is a critical introduction to the use of statistical methods in social research. It provides a unique approach to statistics that concentrates on helping social researchers think about the conceptual basis for the statistical methods they're using.
Whereas other statistical methods books instruct students in how to get through the statistics-based elements of their chosen course with as little mathematical knowledge as possible, this book aims to improve students' statistical literacy, with the ultimate goal of turning them into competent researchers.
Making Sense of Statistical Methods in Social Research contains careful discussion of the conceptual foundation of statistical methods, specifying what questions they can, or cannot, answer. The logic of each statistical method or procedure is explained, drawing on the historical development of the method, existing publications that apply the method, and methodological discussions. Statistical techniques and procedures are presented not for the purpose of showing how to produce statistics with certain software packages, but as a way of illuminating the underlying logic behind the symbols.
The limited statistical knowledge that students gain from straight forward ‘how-to’ books makes it very hard for students to move beyond introductory statistics courses to postgraduate study and research. This book should help to bridge this gap.
The Use of Statistical Methods in Social Research
The Use of Statistical Methods in Social Research
What Statistics Is Not Good at
Describing Unique Phenomena in Great Detail
Statistics is a tool for discovering meaningful information from a large amount of numeric data. It is most useful for obtaining concise and precise information about a large number of cases. Cases may come in many different forms: groups of human beings, buffalos, crops, microchips, accidents, web pages and so forth. When it is more important to know the characteristics of these cases as a whole than to learn about each particular unit, statistics starts ...
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