Hi Nancy:
Check out textbooks by Fred Gravetter. Gravetter & Wallnau
"Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences" has lots of practice
problems. The authors have a "lighter" version of the text,
"Essentials of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences" that may
be worth checking out.
Ken
---------------------------------------------------------------
Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D. [email protected]
Professor and Assistant Chairperson
Department of Psychology http://www.psych.appstate.edu
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
USA
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[email protected] wrote:
Hi,
I have been asked to teach baby Stats (again) for psychology at a school
where my teacher evaluations have been generally decent but the faculty
evaluator, who looks at our course materials, does not like my choice of
book.
I use Bluman Brief Edition (4th) which is not a "Psych Stats" book. The
examples and practice problems (of which there are a lot, that's why I
like the book) cover a variety of social, educational, criminal justice
and business applications...there are a few pure psych problems mixed
in, not many. The course includes lecture time (during which I teach
concepts and lots of by hand-solving of problems) and an SPSS lab.
I would like to keep my job at this CSU (a concern in our current budget
environment), but I am reluctant to part with my book. I like it. Other
"stats for psych" books I've used have had far fewer practice problems
available and emphasize "teaching the concepts". I hate that. I know I
can supply my own problems but I was hoping that someone out there knows
of a "stats for psych" book that at least provides a balance between
conceptual understanding and teaching students to grasp and perform the
processes of statistical calculation with lots of real practice
problems, related to psych and the social sciences closely allied to it.
Before I go through the nuisance of doing this and having to learn
someone else's way of doing some of the procedures (every book has a few
of its own idiosyncratic presentations of formulae), I thought I might
at least find a book, with your help, that provides a decent number of
practice problems.
PS. I don't want to discuss whether teaching the hand calculations is
necessary. I could never learn mathematics by reading descriptions of
how to do it. Before they learn SPSS, they need to learn at least a very
basic version of what SPSS does. It's like teaching someone to use a
calculator without teaching them to add, subtract, multiply etc. with
his or her own brain first.
Thanks for your help - and have a good weekend too.
Nancy Melucci
Long Beach CIty College
Long Beach CA
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