Therefore, although I make recommendations, within the limits imposed by the senseless destruction of rainforests, I hope to give you enough background in theory to enable you to make your own decisions about how best to conduct your analysis.Ī second (ridiculously ambitious) aim is to make this the only statistics book that you’ll ever need to buy (sort of). Data analysis is more subjective than is often made out. Too many books create the impression that there is a ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ way to do statistics. However, if you want a stats book that also discusses digital rectal stimulation, then you have just spent your money wisely. If you want theory and you like equations then there are certainly more technical books. My first aim is to strike a balance between theory and practice: I want to use the computer as a tool for teaching statistical concepts in the hope that you will gain a better understanding of both theory and practice. Using a computer without any statistical knowledge at all can be a dangerous thing. The only downside of the computer is that it makes it really easy to make a complete idiot of yourself if you don’t understand what you’re doing. The computer to a goat-warrior of Satan is like catnip to a cat: it makes them rub their heads along the ground and purr and dribble ceaselessly. Computer programs such as IBM SPSS Statistics, SAS, R, JASP and the like provide an opportunity to teach statistics at a conceptual level without getting too bogged down in equations. The one weapon that we have is the computer, which allows us to neatly circumvent the considerable disability of not understanding mathematics. The end result, as you might expect, can be quite messy. Nevertheless, the evil goat-warriors of Satan force our non-mathematical brains to apply themselves to what is the very complex task of becoming a statistics expert. Most of us have a non-mathematical background, which makes understanding complex statistical equations very difficult. Many behavioural and social science students (and researchers for that matter) despise statistics.
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