Statistics in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly))

Need to learn statistics as part of your job, or want some help passing a statistics course? __Statistics in a Nutshell__ is a clear and concise introduction and reference that's perfect for anyone with no previous background in the subject. This book gives you a solid understanding of statistics without being too simple, yet without the numbing complexity of most college texts. You get a firm grasp of the fundamentals and a hands-on understanding of how to apply them before moving on to the more advanced material that follows. Each chapter presents you with easy-to-follow descriptions illustrated by graphics, formulas, and plenty of solved examples. Before you know it, you'll learn to apply statistical reasoning and statistical techniques, from basic concepts of probability and hypothesis testing to multivariate analysis. Organized into four distinct sections, __Statistics in a Nutshell__ offers you: **Introductory material: * Different ways to think about statistics * Basic concepts of measurement and probability theory * Data management for statistical analysis * Research design and experimental design * How to critique statistics presented by others **Basic inferential statistics: * Basic concepts of inferential statistics * The concept of correlation, when it is and is not an appropriate measure of association * Dichotomous and categorical data * The distinction between parametric and nonparametric statistics **Advanced inferential techniques: * The General Linear Model * Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and MANOVA * Multiple linear regression **Specialized techniques: * Business and quality improvement statistics * Medical and public health statistics * Educational and psychological statistics******** Unlike many introductory books on the subject, __Statistics in a Nutshell__ doesn't omit important material in an effort to dumb it down. And this book is far more practical than most college texts, which tend to over-emphasize calculation without teaching you when and how to apply different statistical tests. With __Statistics in a Nutshell__, you learn how to perform most common statistical analyses, and understand statistical techniques presented in research articles. If you need to know how to use a wide range of statistical techniques without getting in over your head, this is the book you want. Statistics in a Nutshell......Page 1 Table of Contents......Page 7 Preface......Page 13 What Is Statistics?......Page 14 The Focus of This Book......Page 15 Statistics in the Age of Information......Page 16 Organization of This Book......Page 17 Conventions Used in This Book......Page 21 Safari® Books Online......Page 22 Paul Watters......Page 23 Basic Concepts of Measurement......Page 25 Nominal Data......Page 26 Ordinal Data......Page 27 Continuous and Discrete Data......Page 28 Operationalization......Page 29 Proxy Measurement......Page 30 True and Error Scores......Page 31 Reliability and Validity......Page 32 Reliability......Page 33 Measures of Agreement......Page 35 Validity......Page 36 Triangulation......Page 38 Bias in Sample Selection and Retention......Page 39 Information Bias......Page 41 Solution......Page 42 Probability......Page 45 About Formulas......Page 46 Trials......Page 47 Union......Page 48 Complement......Page 49 Mutual Exclusivity......Page 50 Permutations......Page 51 Combinations......Page 52 Defining Probability......Page 53 Conditional Probabilities......Page 54 Union of events that are not mutually exclusive......Page 55 Bayes’s Theorem......Page 56 Enough Exposition, Let’s Do Some Statistics!......Page 58 Dice, Coins, and Playing Cards......Page 59 Solution......Page 60 Solution......Page 61 Solution......Page 62 Closing Note: The Connection Between Statistics and Gambling......Page 63 Data Management......Page 65 An Approach, Not a Set of Recipes......Page 66 Codebooks......Page 67 The Rectangular Data File......Page 69 Spreadsheets and Relational Databases......Page 71 Inspecting a New Data File......Page 72 Missing Data......Page 75 Populations and Samples......Page 78 The Mean......Page 79 The Median......Page 81 Measures of Dispersion......Page 82 The Range and Interquartile Range......Page 83 The Variance and Standard Deviation......Page 84 Outliers......Page 86 Frequency Tables......Page 87 Bar Charts......Page 89 Pareto Charts......Page 92 The Stem-and-Leaf Plot......Page 94 The Boxplot......Page 95 The Histogram......Page 97 Bivariate Charts......Page 99 Scatterplots......Page 101 Line Graphs......Page 102 Exercises......Page 105 Answer......Page 106 Answer......Page 107 Answer......Page 108 Research Design......Page 109 Observational Studies......Page 110 Experimental Studies......Page 112 Ingredients of a Good Design......Page 113 Gathering Experimental Data......Page 114 Identifying Experimental Units......Page 115 Identifying Treatments and Controls......Page 116 Specifying Response Variables......Page 118 Inference and Threats to Validity......Page 120 Construct Validity......Page 122 Statistical Validity and Hypothesis Testing......Page 123 Eliminating Bias......Page 125 Blinding......Page 126 Blocking and Common Designs......Page 127 Example Experimental Design......Page 129 The Misuse of Statistics......Page 131 Common Problems......Page 132 Quick Checklist......Page 134 Research Design......Page 135 Sampling......Page 136 Descriptive Statistics......Page 137 Standard Error and Confidence Intervals......Page 138 Graphing......Page 139 t-tests......Page 142 ANOVA......Page 143 Linear regression......Page 144 Inferential Statistics......Page 149 Probability Distributions......Page 150 The Normal Distribution......Page 151 The Binomial Distribution......Page 153 Independent and Dependent Variables......Page 156 Populations and Samples......Page 157 Nonprobability Sampling......Page 158 Probability Sampling......Page 159 The Central Limit Theorem......Page 161 Hypothesis Testing......Page 164 Confidence Intervals......Page 168 p-values......Page 169 Data Transformations......Page 170 Conceptual Questions......Page 173 Solutions......Page 174 The t Distribution......Page 175 t-Tests......Page 176 t-Test Assumptions......Page 178 One-Sample t-Test......Page 179 Determining Confidence Intervals......Page 180 Two-Sample t-Test......Page 181 Repeated Measures t-Test......Page 184 Unequal Variance t-Test......Page 186 Effect Size and Power......Page 188 Exercises......Page 189 Question......Page 190 Answer......Page 191 Measuring Association......Page 193 Graphing Associations Through Scatterplots......Page 194 Quantitative Variables......Page 195 Pearson’s Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient......Page 200 Testing Statistical Significance......Page 203 Coefficient of Determination......Page 204 Spearman Rank-Order Coefficient......Page 207 Testing Statistical Significance......Page 208 Point-Biserial Correlation Coefficient......Page 209 Phi Correlation Coefficient......Page 210 Categorical Data......Page 212 The R¥C Table......Page 213 The Chi-Square Distribution......Page 214 The Chi-Square Test......Page 215 Fisher’s Exact Test......Page 220 McNemar’s Test for Matched Pairs......Page 221 Ordinal Variables......Page 223 The Likert and Semantic Differential Scales......Page 226 Question......Page 227 Answer......Page 228 Answer......Page 229 Answer......Page 230 Nonparametric Statistics......Page 231 Nonnormal Data......Page 232 Wilcoxon’s Rank Sum Test and the Mann-Whitney U Test......Page 233 Median Test......Page 237 Kruskal-Wallis H Test......Page 238 Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Signed Rank Test......Page 241 Friedman Test......Page 243 Answer......Page 245 Question......Page 246 Answer......Page 247 Introduction to the General Linear Model......Page 248 The General Linear Model......Page 249 Linear Regression......Page 250 Assumptions......Page 255 One-Way ANOVA......Page 256 Post Hoc Tests......Page 262 Question......Page 263 Answer......Page 264 Answer......Page 265 Extensions of Analysis of Variance......Page 267 Two-Way ANOVA......Page 268 Three-Way ANOVA......Page 272 MANOVA......Page 274 ANCOVA......Page 277 Repeated Measures ANOVA......Page 279 Within-Subjects and Between-Subjects......Page 281 Within-Subjects and Between-Subjects and Covariates......Page 283 Multiple Regression Models......Page 288 Standardized Coefficients......Page 293 Proxy and Dummy Variables......Page 294 Regression Algorithms......Page 296 Forward......Page 298 Backward......Page 299 Common Problems with Multiple Regression......Page 301 Answer......Page 303 Question......Page 305 Answer......Page 306 Logistic Regression......Page 308 Logarithmic Transformations......Page 311 Polynomial Regression......Page 312 Overfitting......Page 316 Factor Analysis......Page 322 Cluster Analysis......Page 329 Discriminant Function Analysis......Page 333 Multidimensional Scaling......Page 336 Index Numbers......Page 339 Time Series......Page 343 Decision Analysis......Page 347 Minimax, Maximax, and Maximin......Page 349 Decision-Making Under Risk......Page 350 Decision Trees......Page 351 Quality Improvement......Page 352 Run Charts and Control Charts......Page 353 Question......Page 359 Question......Page 360 Answer......Page 361 Answer......Page 362 Measures of Disease Frequency......Page 363 Ratio, Proportion, and Rate......Page 364 Prevalence and Incidence......Page 366 Crude, Category-Specific, and Standardized Rates......Page 369 The Risk Ratio......Page 372 The Odds Ratio......Page 376 Confounding, Stratified Analysis, and the Mantel-Haenszel Common Odds Ratio......Page 378 Power Analysis......Page 382 Confidence Interval for a Proportion......Page 385 Question......Page 386 Answer......Page 388 Answer......Page 389 Educational and Psychological Statistics......Page 390 Percentiles......Page 391 Standardized Scores......Page 393 Test Construction......Page 394 Classical Test Theory: The True Score Model......Page 397 Reliability of a Composite Test......Page 398 Measures of Internal Consistency......Page 399 Split-Half Methods......Page 400 Coefficient Alpha......Page 401 Item Analysis......Page 403 Item Response Theory......Page 407 Answer......Page 412 Answer......Page 413 Review of Basic Mathematics......Page 415 Laws of Arithmetic......Page 416 Order of Operations......Page 417 Properties of Real Numbers......Page 418 Properties of Roots......Page 419 Solving Equations......Page 421 Systems of Equations......Page 422 Graphing Equations......Page 423 Linear Inequalities......Page 426 Fractions......Page 427 Factorials, Permutations, and Combinations......Page 429 Laws of Arithmetic and Real Numbers......Page 431 Solving Equations for x......Page 432 Fractions, Decimals, and Percents......Page 433 Laws of Arithmetic and Real Numbers......Page 434 Exponents, Roots, and Logarithms......Page 435 Linear Equalities......Page 436 Factorials, Permutations, and Combinations......Page 437 Introduction to Statistical Packages......Page 438 Minitab......Page 439 SPSS......Page 441 SAS......Page 444 R......Page 448 Microsoft Excel......Page 450 Preface......Page 455 Chapter2......Page 456 Chapter4......Page 457 Chapter7......Page 458 Chapter9......Page 459 Chapter13......Page 460 Chapter17......Page 461 Chapter18......Page 462 Chapter19......Page 463 SPSS......Page 464 R and S-Plus......Page 465 Excel......Page 466 Index......Page 467

Need to learn statistics as part of your job, or want some help passing a statistics course? Statistics in a Nutshell is a clear and concise introduction and reference that's perfect for anyone with no previous background in the subject. This book gives you a solid understanding of statistics without being too simple, yet without the numbing complexity of most college texts.

You get a firm grasp of the fundamentals and a hands-on understanding of how to apply them before moving on to the more advanced material that follows. Each chapter presents you with easy-to-follow descriptions illustrated by graphics, formulas, and plenty of solved examples. Before you know it, you'll learn to apply statistical reasoning and statistical techniques, from basic concepts of probability and hypothesis testing to multivariate analysis.

Organized into four distinct sections, Statistics in a Nutshell offers you:

• Introductory material:
• Different ways to think about statistics
• Basic concepts of measurement and probability theory
• Data management for statistical analysis
• Research design and experimental design
• How to critique statistics presented by others

• Basic inferential statistics:

• Basic concepts of inferential statistics
• The concept of correlation, when it is and is not an appropriate measure of association
• Dichotomous and categorical data
• The distinction between parametric and nonparametric statistics

• Advanced inferential techniques:

• The General Linear Model
• Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and MANOVA
• Multiple linear regression

• Specialized techniques:

• Business and quality improvement statistics
• Medical and public health statistics
• Educational and psychological statistics

Unlike many introductory books on the subject, Statistics in a Nutshell doesn't omit important material in an effort to dumb it down. And this book is far more practical than most college texts, which tend to over-emphasize calculation without teaching you when and how to apply different statistical tests.

With Statistics in a Nutshell, you learn how to perform most common statistical analyses, and understand statistical techniques presented in research articles. If you need to know how to use a wide range of statistical techniques without getting in over your head, this is the book you want.