<內容簡介>

●Because math anxiety is a common and often serious problem for many students, the text provides a substantial math review section, including a self-test, to help students hone skills required for the course and gain confidence in their own ability to master the material.
●Streamlined content and a student-friendly page design make the text more approachable and less intimidating for students with math anxiety, as well as more enjoyable for all students and instructors.
●Overviews for each section of the text clarify the organization, preview the content and key concepts, and help students understand why the material is covered. Extensive problem sets at the end of each chapter and multi-chapter cumulative exercises help students review key concepts and operations.
●Almost all end-of-chapter problems are labeled by the social science discipline or discipline from which they are drawn: SOC for sociology, SW for social work, PS for political science, CJ for criminal justice, PA for public administration, and GER for gerontology. By identifying problems with specific disciplines, students can more easily see the relevance of statistics to their own academic interests. They will also see that the disciplines have a large subject matter in common.
●All end-of-chapter problem sections include SPSS problems.
●The text explores the role of statistics in social science research, including how to select an appropriate method for a specific problem and data set as well as how to analyze the statistical results. All problem examples are presented in the context of social research.
●“Interpreting Statistics” sections provide non-computational examples demonstrating the application of statistical analysis to real research problems.
●“Reading Statistics” boxes introduce students to professional literature and ways social scientists apply and interpret statistics.
●Extremely readable and easy to use, STATISTICS: A TOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH is known for its student-friendly presentation.
●Included in every chapter, the “Statistics in Everyday Life” feature provides examples of the relevance and usefulness of statistics in a wide variety of situations, ranging from telephone solicitations to the effect of the Internet on the crime of rape. These examples of everyday applications of statistics demonstrate to students that statistics are not just abstract mathematical constructs but have practical value in the real world of government, education, business, media, politics, sports, and more.
●End-of-chapter SPSS exercises equip students with hands-on experience, requiring them to be actively involved in the exercises, stating research questions, selecting appropriate variables, and interpreting results.
●Interpretation is emphasized throughout the text.
●“One Step at a Time” features present at-a-glance computational procedures for each statistic, making it easy for students to immediately apply their knowledge and appreciate the practical value of the material.

<章節目錄>

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: Sampling and the Sampling Distribution.
7. Estimation Procedures.
8. Hypothesis Testing I: The One-Sample Case.
9. Hypothesis Testing II: The Two-Sample Case.
10. Hypothesis Testing III: The Analysis of Variance.
11. Hypothesis Testing IV: Chi Square.
PART III BIVARIATE MEASURES OF ASSOCIATION.
12. Bivariate Association for Nominal- and Ordinal-Level Variables.
13. Association Between Variables Measured at the Interval-Ratio Level.
PART IV: MULTIVARIATE TECHNIQUES.
14. Elaborating Bivariate Tables.
15. Partial Correlation and Multiple Regression and Correlation.
Appendix A: Area Under the Normal Curve.
Appendix B: Distribution of t.
Appendix C: Distribution of Chi Square.
Appendix D: Distribution of F.