Product Description

This fifth edition of Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology has been revised and updated, providing students with the most readable and comprehensive survey of research methods, statistical concepts and procedures in psychology today.

The book assumes no prior knowledge, taking you through every stage of your research project in manageable steps. Advice on planning and conducting studies, analysing data and writing up practical reports is given, and examples provided, as well as advice on how to report results in conventional (APA) style.

Unlike other introductory texts, there is discussion of commonly misunderstood concepts such as ecological validity, the null hypothesis and the role of cross-cultural psychology studies. Qualitative research is included in the central research methods chapters as well as being highlighted in specialist chapters which cover content analysis, grounded theory, interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), narrative analysis, discourse analysis and how to tackle a qualitative research project.

The book provides clear coverage of statistical procedures, and includes everything needed at undergraduate level from nominal level tests to multi-factorial ANOVA designs, multiple regression and log linear analysis. In addition, the book provides detailed and illustrated SPSS instructions (updated to version 16) for all statistical procedures, including data entry and interpreting output, thus eliminating the need for an extra SPSS textbook.

Each chapter contains a glossary, key terms and newly integrated exercises, ensuring that key concepts are understood. A companion website (www.hodderplus.com/psychology) provides additional exercises, revision flash cards, links to further reading and data for use with SPSS.

The bestselling research methods text for almost two decades, Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology remains an invaluable resource for students of psychology throughout their studies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37018 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 703 pages

About the Author
Hugh Coolican is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Coventry, a Chartered Psychologist and external examiner at The Open University and Staffordshire University.

Customer Reviews

EXCELLENT
I have had to read many books to understand statistics at University. This is an excellent book for those beginning stats, in fact the best I've ever bought. The tables can be a bit difficult to read, however, it is explained in such easy terms, and is very humourous and well-written. It really made sense of stats for me

Research methods and statistics in psychology
When this arrived I was lost on my first psychology report, the easy to follow instructions helped me through. I will continue to let it guide me and recommend it to all other psychology students.

Extensive, but a little annoying at times
This is a pretty good introduction to statistics, especially for complete beginners. I had to buy it for a course, and at first wasn't too impressed with it, primarily because of the writing style. The author keeps the tone very light and says many jokes and funny things, which never bothered me. What did irritate me was that he also has a tendency to really "dumb-down" everything, to the point where you feel like it has been written for younger students, rather than university students (which I gather it sort of was).

However, I figured out after working my way through the course that the text is actually pretty good: it covers several statistical tests that other texts skip. Tests detailed include: binomial sign test, Chi-square, Wilcoxon matched pairs signed ranks, Mann-Whitney U, Wilcoxon rank sum, t test, Pearson's correlation, Spearman's rho, regression (including multiple), Kruskal-Wallis, Jonkheere trend, Friedman, Page trend, ANOVA (one-way, two-way, more-than-two-way, unrelated and related), MANOVA, ANCOVA. It also covers the design of experiments in detail. And the author really does make an effort to explain everything fully, for readers who have neither a statistical background nor even a strong maths background. It serves as a really good reference, even if reading it is a bit painful.

In short, I doubt this is the best statistics book out there, but it is the best statistics reference book I've seen yet. So I would recommend it if you are starting from scratch. But if you are comfortable with maths or even basic statistics, I wouldn't bother this book, as I'm sure you'll find it as irritating to read as I did.