Handling Numerical Data Effectively:
'Quick View' Contents Page

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Reasons for using statistics
Using numerical information and making inferences is something that our brain does all the time...

Introducing 'descriptives'
Focus 1 - 11. The material that you will have covered at the successful conclusion of this unit.

10 user tips
Ideas to help you use this material effectively.

Comprehensive reading lists
This is a selection of the best books in the library and in the bookshop. There is a short critique of some of the books to help in the selection process. The list is multidisciplinary.

Signposts to help
...a page to help you select the right statistical test for the job...

Extended glossary
A selection of expanded definitions / worksheets for particular use with Microsoft Excel.

Like all software programmes...you need to understand the basics before you can use them. This page will get you started....

Each 'Focus' contains explanations, examples and exercises related to the material delivered in your lectures and relevant to your course. The site has been designed in such a way that each topic can be used as a 'refresher' or for a specific statistics task that you have to deal with. The 'Clipart' images are there to indicate where a new worked topic or example begins.

Descriptive Statistics & the beginnings of Statistical Inference

Focus 1. Qualitative and Quantitative data, Scales of measurement, Bias, Types of Variable,

Focus 2. Professional (visual) presentation of data, Ranking , 'Picture scores', Bar charts, Histograms, Pie charts, 'Stem and Leaf' plots

Focus 2a . Aspects of Central Tendency. What actually is the 'Average'?. Dispersion

Focus 3 . Towards the Normal Distribution, working with 'Z'- scores, Standard Normal distributions

Focus 4 . The Beginnings of Inferential Statistics. Are two groups different? Hypothesis testing, Probability and P-values, Ho and H1, Type 1 & 2 errors

Focus 5 . Using and interpreting 'official statistics', handling misleading data

Focus 6 . Paired t-test, a note about standard error, an explanation of 'degrees of freedom'

Focus 6a . Un-paired / un-matched / independent samples t-tests, a note about Z-tests

Focus 8 . Nonparametric tests: More about questionnaires, Coding, The Mann-Whitney 'U' test for 2 independent data sets and the Wilcoxon test for matched-pairs

Focus 8a. The Chi-square test for Association (Nominal data) and Yate's correction. A short note
about the 'G' test

Focus 9 More about frequency analysis, testing for normality, the 2 Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests: for normality and the two-sample test

Focus 11 . Simple two-variable Regression analysis.
A note on testing the significance of a regression line

SPSS data sets: Index page. A full list of all (active)data sets held on this (SM) version.
Improve your fluency with SPSS by using and reworking the data sets listed here.

More Advanced Techniques:

Exploring more advanced methods.
Focus 12 -18 An overview of the material that you will have covered at the successful conclusion of this unit. The use of such material in a dissertation (only when appropriate!) will add depth to your work.

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Focus 12. Multiple regression. Working with three or more variables at a time.

Focus 13. An brief introduction to ANOVA's....(1) Regression ANOVA's,
(2) one-way (one-factor) Independent - Groups ANOVA. Post hoc tests (Tukey's test)

Focus 13a. The Kruskal-Wallis and Friedman tests for non-parametric data (plus various post hoc tests)

Focus 13b. A brief description of some of the other types of Analysis of Variance

Focus 14. 'Reducing the dimensions', Factor Analysis & Principal Components Analysis (PCA)

Handling Numerical Data Effectively: 'Quick View' Contents Page

[Click the page headings below to go directly to that page]

For dissertation and assignment purposes, use the Signpost page and this page to go directly to the Focus point that is relevant to your work.

Descriptive Statistics & the beginnings of Statistical Inference

More Advanced Techniques:

Handling Numerical Data Effectively:
'Quick View' Contents Page

For dissertation and assignment purposes, use the Signpost page
and this page to go directly to the Focus point that is relevant to your work.