Experimental Psychology: Research Methods and Statistics

✍ Scribed by R. B. Burns, C. B. Dobson (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1980
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 449
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book has been written to meet several needs. Firstly there is a need for a book which integrates statistics, research design, ex­ periments and report writing so that none is learned in a vacuum, as commonly is the case, isolated from the others. The aim is to make the student an active learner encouraged to carry out experiments, so ex­ periencing and understanding the design problems and statistical analyses in the practical context where he can see exactly what he is doing and why. The aim is that by the end of the book, the student should be able to evaluate the research of others, to define a problem, formulate a hypothesis about it, design and carry out the experiment, apply the correct statistics, discuss the results and implications, and write it all up in a logical and sensible fashion. The principle is that old pedagogic one of learning by doing. Secondly, there is a need for an introductory text on statistics, research design and experimental work for the many students who meet psychology and social science for the first time. The initiate in behavioural science needs to gain a conceptual understanding of statistical procedures and design techniques in order to carry out his own investigations and to understand and evaluate constructively the investigations of others. However, experience has shown us that many students (and even some fellow teachers) are somewhat reluctant to study this area as they believe it is difficult and involves mathematics.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages iii-xii
Psychology and the scientific method....Pages 1-13
Descriptive statistics....Pages 14-27
Standard scores....Pages 28-33
Normal distribution....Pages 34-43
Probability and significance....Pages 44-51
Statistical significance....Pages 52-56
Sampling....Pages 57-77
Standard error....Pages 78-87
Hypothesis formation....Pages 88-97
Hypothesis testing....Pages 98-110
Variables....Pages 111-120
Levels of measurement....Pages 121-125
Writing an experimental report....Pages 126-142
Experimental design and the control of error I. The between-groups unrelated design....Pages 143-150
Standard error of the difference between means....Pages 151-157
Statistical tests for unrelated designs....Pages 158-171
Experimental design and the control of error: II. Within-groups related design and matched pairs design....Pages 172-190
Statistical tests for related designs....Pages 191-211
Design and subject — experimenter problems....Pages 212-222
Chi-square....Pages 223-242
Correlation....Pages 243-271
One-way analysis of variance....Pages 272-300
Statistical tests....Pages 301-307
Factor analysis....Pages 308-329
Reliability and validity....Pages 330-368
Attitude measurement....Pages 369-384
Non-experimental methods....Pages 385-402
Back Matter....Pages 403-439

✦ Subjects

Psychology, general