The Essentials of Statistics: A Tool for Social Research, 4th Edition

Joseph F. Healey

Copyright 2016
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The Essentials of Statistics: A Tool for Social Research 4th Edition by Joseph F. Healey

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Overview
Meet the Author
What's New
Features
Table of Contents
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Overview

Framed in a student-friendly writing style, this text presents the essentials of statistics with an applied approach. Author Joseph Healey encourages skill development for statistical literacy, emphasizing computational competence and the ability to read social science literature with greater comprehension.

Meet the Authors

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Joseph F. Healey

Joseph F. Healey is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Christopher Newport University. In addition to STATISTICS: A TOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH AND DATA ANALYSIS, he is the author of RACE, ETHNICITY, GENDER AND CLASS, 8th Edition (Sage, 2018 ) and DIVERSITY AND SOCIETY, 6th Edition (Sage, 2020 ) as well as co-author of several other texts. Dr. Healey earned his A.B. and M.A. from The College of William and Mary (sociology and anthropology) and his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia (sociology and anthropology). In his spare time, he plays and records music for the hammer dulcimer and banjo.

What's New

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Coverage of SPSS® is more prominent in this edition. Almost all chapters have new “Using SPSS” sections that illustrate how to produce the statistics covered in the chapter. SPSS problems have been added to the end-of-chapter problems throughout the text. In some chapters (e.g., Chapters 12 and 13), the SPSS problems replace problems using hand calculators.
For statistics that require complex computation-such as Pearson's r (Chapter 12) and partial correlation, multiple correlation, and regression (Chapter 13)-explanations and examples are now SPSS-based.
The data sets-which are used throughout the text in examples, in the new “Using SPSS” sections, in the end-of-chapter problems, and in the “You Are the Researcher” projects at the end of most chapters-have been expanded and updated. Available for downloading at the book's website, they include a General Social Survey (GSS) data set that has been updated to 2012, a data set that presents census and crime data on the 50 states, a data set with primarily demographic data for 99 nations, and a crime trends data set used for the graphing exercises in Chapter 2.
Former Chapters 11 and 12 have been combined into a single chapter (Chapter 11, “Bivariate Association for Nominal- and Ordinal-Level Variables”). This new chapter de-emphasizes phi and the mechanics of computation for gamma but still fully treats the analysis of association for variables organized in bivariate tables.
Chapter 2, “Basic Descriptive Statistics: Tables, Percentages, Ratios and Rates, and Graphs,” has been reorganized and now begins with frequency distributions.
Boxplots have been added to Chapter 4, “Measures of Dispersion.”

Features

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The book includes numerous real-world examples that show the application of statistical concepts to everyday occurrences.
The General Social Survey data set has been updated to 2012 and two new data sets have been added for students to analyze: one for the U.S. states and an international data set with data for 99 nations.
The author has updated and increased the number of “Statistics in Everyday Life” features. These features demonstrate the application of statistical concepts by bringing interesting statistical findings to students' attention and asking questions that encourage students to think about the implications of these findings.
“One Step at a Time” features present at-a-glance computational procedures for each statistic, making it easy for students to get the right answers.
Problems Sets at the end of each chapter, organized progressively, help students develop problem-solving abilities gradually.
Learning Objectives, Chapter Summaries, Summaries of Formulas, and Chapter Glossaries provide students with tools to gain a clearer understanding of the concepts presented.
The “You are the Researcher” section, which follows the Problem Sets at the end of each chapter, requires students to use SPSS to analyze the 2012 General Social Survey.

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1. Introduction.
Part I: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS.
2. Basic Descriptive Statistics: Tables, Percentages, Ratios and Rates, and Graphs.
3. Measures of Central Tendency.
4. Measures of Dispersion.
5. The Normal Curve.
Part II: INFERENTIAL STATISTICS.
6. Introduction to Inferential Statistics, the Sampling Distribution, and Estimation.
7. Hypothesis Testing I: The One-Sample Case.
8. Hypothesis Testing II: The Two-Sample Case.
9. Hypothesis Testing III: The Analysis of Variance.
10. Hypothesis Testing IV: Chi Square.
Part III: BIVARIATE MEASURES OF ASSOCIATION.
11. Bivariate Association for Nominal- and Ordinal-Level Variables.
12, Association Between Variables Measured at the Interval-Ratio Level.