First Steps In Research and Statistics

Dennis Howitt and Duncan Cramer both teach at Loughborough University and have written several books on research and statistics.

• Part I: The Basics of Research. Asking Research Questions. Common Research Methods. Ethics in the Conduct of Research. Measuring Variables. Part II: The Statistical Analysis of Single Variables and Simple Surveys. Two Types of Data Analysis. Describing and Summarising Category Data. Describing and Summarising Score Data. Surveys and Sampling. Part III: Exploring Correlational Relationships in Survey/Non-experimental Studies. Examining Relationships Between Two Variables. Numerical Ways of Describing Relationships: Correlation Coefficients. Statistical Significance of the Correlation Coefficient. Differences and Association Among Two Sets of Categories: Chi-square. Conducting Survey/Non-experimental Studies. Part IV: Exploring Differences Between Group Means. Testing for Differences in Means; More on Significance Testing. Comparing the Scores of Two Groups of People: Mann-Whitney U-test. Comparing Scores from the Same Group of People on Two Occasions: Wilcoxon Matched-pairs Test. Part V: The Essentials of Designing Experiments. Designing and Running Experiments. Comparing the Scores of a Randomly Assigned Experimental and Control Group: Unrelated t-test. Comparing the Scores of a Counterbalanced Related Subjects Experiment: Related t-test. Comparing Three or More Groups on a Numerical Score. Part VI: The Report. Writing a Research Report. References. Index.

This book provides the novice psychologist not just with a comprehensive and comprehensible guide to basic statistics and methodology, but also illuminates and illustrates the links between the two: an unusual, if not a unique feature. I would certainly recommend this book to all first year students who pose the question: 'Why do we have to learn about statistics?' -Graham Davies, University of Leicester