Description

The main objective of the book is to help students and researchers who approach statistics with anxiety and awe understand that applied statistics in the social sciences is not a scientific field that concerns only a few, particularly those who are good at mathematics. With almost no mathematical computations, our aim is to help the reader develop "statistical thinking," that is, to understand the logic underlying various statistical criteria and to be able to apply them according to the conditions and characteristics of their research.

Using primarily real research data, we present step by step the statistical procedures and commands that the interested party should implement in two widely used statistical software: SPSS, the most well-known and widely used commercial statistical software, and R, the most widely used open-source software. All the research data used are available on the book's website, where the reader can also refer for additional educational material (e.g., articles, specialized websites with statistical applications, alternative commands for implementing statistical analyses, exercises, etc.), aimed at enhancing the understanding of each chapter.

Contents

• Introduction
• Basic Principles of Measurement
• Introduction to SPSS
• Introduction to R
• Data Presentation
• The Normal Distribution
• Hypothesis Testing
• Comparison of Frequencies of Categories: The Chi-Square Statistical Test
• The Correlation Coefficient
• Regression Analysis
• Comparison of Means
• Introduction to Analysis of Variance
• One-Way Analysis of Variance and Covariance
• The Factorial Analysis of Variance
• Mediation Analysis and Adjustment Analysis
• The Exploratory Factor Analysis
• Path Analysis and Structural Equation Models
• Bibliography
• Tables of Critical Values
• Numerical Concepts and Calculations
• Index of Terms
• Answers to Understanding Exercises