Understanding Statistical Analysis and Modeling

Understanding Statistical Analysis and Modeling is intended for graduate or advanced undergraduate students in the social, behavioral, or managerial sciences who may need to conduct some form of statistical analysis in their future professional lives, but who are not trained in mathematics. Robert Bruhl focuses on the logic of statistical analysis, rather than mathematical methods, and while formulas are introduced after the underlying logic has been explained, the exercises are performed in SPSS. A second feature of the book is the focus on modeling: statistical analysis is a tool that is used to answer a research question, and different questions will be answered by different statistics. Students come to understand why and how a particular set of phenomena are to be modeled, because those conceptual choices will determine the meaningfulness of the empirical questions posed and the interpretation of the statistics generated to address those questions. A third feature is the book’s discussion of probability theory, and while this text is not intended to be a comprehensive course in the subject, the text introduces some important concepts necessary to understand the application of probability analysis to questions of statistical analysis. Chapter-ending exercises help students: construct a research question; obtain “observations” relative to that research question; choose an appropriate method of analysis; and interpret the analytical results in terms of the research question initially posed.