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Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics
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Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics

Eighth Edition
August 2025 | SAGE Publications, Inc
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The bestselling Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics teaches an often intimidating and difficult subject in a way that is informative, personable, and clear. The authors take students through various statistical procedures, beginning with correlation and graphical representation of data and ending with inferential techniques and analysis of variance. In addition, the text provides instruction in SPSS, and includes reviews of more advanced techniques, such as reliability, validity, introductory non-parametric statistics, and more. The text includes a key feature called "The Path to Wisdom and Knowledge": a flowchart in each of the main chapters showing readers how to select the appropriate test statistic. The Eighth Edition has combined and streamlined chapters so that there are now 14 chapters rather than 19, the end-of-chapter questions have been thoroughly revised, dozens of new research examples have been added, a new section on artificial intelligence chatbots for statistical analyses is provided, the SPSS appendix has been updated for the newest version of the software, and the glossary has been extensively revised and improved for clarity. The text is now available in full color, and available in Sage's award-winning Vantage learning platform.
 
A Note to the Student
 
Acknowledgments
 
And Now, About the Eighth Edition …
 
Ancillaries
 
About the Authors
 
Part I: Yippee! I’m in Statistics
 
Chapter 1: Statistics or Sadistics? It’s Up to You
Why Statistics?

 
Descriptive Statistics and Averages

 
Computing the Mean

 
Computing the Median

 
Computing the Mode

 
Summary

 
Activities

 
Key Terms

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 2: What Do Your Data Look Like?
How Much Information Is in Your Variable?

 
Vive la Différence! Understanding Variability

 
The Standard Deviation

 
Using SPSS to Compute Descriptive Statistics

 
Using the Computer (SPSS, That Is) to Illustrate Data

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 3: Computing Correlation Coefficients
How’s Your Relationship?

 
Computing a Pearson Correlation Coefficient

 
What’s It All Mean?

 
Ice Cream Causes Crime (Association vs. Causation)

 
Using SPSS to Compute a Correlation Coefficient

 
Other Cool Correlations

 
Parting Ways: A Bit About Partial Correlations

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 4: Reliability and Validity
Real-World Stats: How Do You Score Physical Activity?

 
Reliability: Getting It Right the First Time

 
Different Types of Reliability

 
Internal Consistency Reliability: To One’s Own Self Be True

 
Interrater Reliability: Agreeing Not to Disagree

 
How Big Is Big? Interpreting Reliability Coefficients

 
Validity: What’s the Meaning of Life!?

 
Validity and Reliability: Really Close Cousins

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 5: The Normal Curve
Distributions and Probabilities

 
Area Codes: Areas Under the Normal Curve

 
The Amazing Super-Informative z Score

 
Using SPSS to Compute z Scores

 
Fat and Skinny Frequency Distributions

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 6: Hypotheticals and You
Samples and Populations

 
The Null Hypothesis

 
The Research Hypothesis

 
A Closer Look at Our Two Favorite Hypotheses

 
What Makes a Good Research Hypothesis?

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 7: Significance
The Concept of Significance

 
If Only We Were Perfect

 
Type I or Type II: Errors in Inferential Statistics

 
Significance Versus Meaningfulness

 
An Introduction to Inferential Statistics

 
An Introduction to Tests of Significance

 
Be Even More Confident

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 8: Single Samples
Introduction to the Single-Sample z Test

 
Computing the z Test Statistic

 
Using SPSS to Perform a z Test t Test

 
Special Effects: Do They Matter?

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Part III: Significantly Different
 
Chapter 9: t(ea) for Two
The Classic Group Comparison: Independent t Test

 
The Effect Size for a Two-Group Comparison

 
Using SPSS to Perform an Independent t Test

 
Using SPSS to Perform a Paired-Samples t Test

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 10: More Than Two Groups?
Different Flavors of Analysis of Variance

 
Computing the F Test Statistic

 
Using SPSS to Compute the F Ratio

 
The Effect Size for One-Way ANOVA

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
Chapter 11: Two (or More) ANOVAs in One

 
Factorial Analysis of Variance

 
A New Flavor of ANOVA

 
The Main Event: Main Effects in Factorial ANOVA

 
Even More Interesting: Interaction Effects

 
Using SPSS to Conduct a Factorial Analysis of Variance

 
Computing the Effect Size for Factorial ANOVA

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 12: Correlation Coefficients and Regression
Remember the Correlation Coefficient?

 
Computing the Test Statistic

 
Linear Regression

 
Drawing the World’s Best Line (for Your Data)

 
How Good Is Your Prediction?

 
Using SPSS to Compute the Regression Line

 
Multiple Regression: The More Predictors the Better? Maybe

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Part V: More Statistics! More Tools! More Fun!
 
Chapter 13: Chi-Square and Some Other Nonparametric Tests
Introduction to Nonparametric Statistics

 
Introduction to the Goodness-of-Fit (One-Sample) Chi-Square

 
Computing the Goodness-of-Fit Chi-Square Test Statistic

 
Introduction to the Chi-Square Test of Independence

 
Using SPSS to Perform Chi-Square Tests

 
Other Nonparametric Tests You Should Know About

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 14: Some Other (Important) Statistical Stuff You Should Know About
Sophisticated Group Comparisons

 
Sophisticated Correlational Analyses

 
It’s Not about What Data is Mine, it’s about What Data is Mined

 
Using Chatbots for Statistical Analyses

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
 
Appendices: Information Never Ends!
 
Appendix A: SPSS Statistics in Less Than 30 Minutes
 
Appendix B: Tables
 
Appendix C: Data Sets
 
Appendix D: Answers to Practice Questions
 
Appendix E: Math: Just the Basics
 
Appendix F: The 10 Commandments of Data Collection
 
Appendix G: The Reward
 
Glossary
 
Appendix D: Answers to Practice Questions
 
Appendix E: Math: Just the Basics
 
Appendix F: The 10 Commandments of Data Collection
 
Appendix G: The Reward
 
Glossary
 
Appendix D: Answers to Practice Questions
 
Appendix E: Math: Just the Basics
 
Appendix F: The 10 Commandments of Data Collection
 
Appendix G: The Reward
 
Glossary

Neil Joseph Salkind

Neil J. Salkind received his PhD in human development from the University of Maryland, and after teaching for 35 years at the University of Kansas, he was Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology and Research in Education, where he collaborated with colleagues and work with students. His early interests were in the area of children’s cognitive development, and after research in the areas of cognitive style and (what was then known as) hyperactivity, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina’s Bush Center for Child and Family Policy. His work then changed direction to focus on child and family policy,... More About Author

Bruce B. Frey

Bruce B. Frey, PhD, is an award-winning researcher, author, teacher, and professor of educational psychology at the University of Kansas. He is the editor of The SAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation and the SAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Design. In addition to being the lead author for The Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics series, his books for SAGE include There’s a Stat for That!, Modern Classroom Assessment, and 100 Questions (and Answers) About Tests and Measurement. He also wrote Statistics Hacks for O’Reilly Media. In his spare time, Bruce leads a secret life as Professor... More About Author

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