Experimental Design and Statistics for Psychology

Experimental Design and Statistics for Psychology: A First Course is a concise and accessible introduction to the design of psychology experiments and the statistical tests used to make sense of their results. Written in a straightforward, effective style and making abundant use of charts, diagrams and figures, this book assumes no prior knowledge of statistics and will be of benefit to all students needing a clear pathway into this often confusing area. The book introduces the main aspects of experimental design and statistics, including: explanations of how to formulate precise hypotheses and how to design experiments aimed at testing the hypotheses; coverage of different aspects of experimental design, including dependent versus independent variables, levels of treatment, experimental control, random versus systematic errors, and within versus between subjects design; a focus on descriptive and inferential statistical analysis of experimental data; an examination of the difference between experimental and correlational studies, showing how to conduct correlation and regression analysis; detailed instructions on how to perform statistical tests with SPSS. An invaluable step-by-step guide to all psychology students needing a firm grasp of the basics, Experimental Design and Statistics for Psychology: A First Course will also fire the imagination of more ambitious students by tackling some of the topic's more complex, controversial issues.