Basic Statistics: Tales of Distributions

by Chris Spatz

This 'friendly, ' accessible textbook emphasizes the analysis of empirical data, which helps students learn to select proper statistical analyses for problems, explain why an analysis is appropriate, calculate the statistics, and write explanations of what the analyses show. Designed to help students develop an intuitive understanding of statistical reasoning, the book gives thorough explanations and presents interesting problems that emphasize the analysis of data rather than mathematical statistics, providing the student with a conceptual understanding and a mastery of computational formulas. Problems, which are an integral part of the text, are from the fields of psychology, sociology, nursing, biology, education, and business. ..In addition, Spatz tells the story of the history of statistics in a friendly style. Some of the questions that pioneers such as Galton, Fisher, Pearson, Gosset, and Quetelet researched are used as worked-out examples or given as problems, giving students a glimpse of the excitement that prevailed when statistics as a field was just beginning.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Reference, Mathematics

450 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Caro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before seeing this book, statistics didn't come naturally to me. Using this book, I was able to reach an understanding of the subject and of math as a whole that I wouldn't have had otherwise. I even ended up with an A in my behavioral statistics class.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty awesome. I understand stats fundamentals way better now. The book especially focuses on theoretical and fundamental stuff that I think other stats books kind of gloss over.

[Fahed Al Kerdi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am teaching statistics this semester for students with no statistics or mathematics background. I had an exhausting journey to find a book with topics that are really "basics" for my students, and thankfully this book has helped a lot, it is full with examples and solved problems that explained almost everything basic for a student with no statistics previous knowledge. Th helped me prepared the teaching materials thanks to the enticing writing style of the author. Highly recommended for teachers and students. Believe me, I have been through more than 10 books, non were close to the language nor to the content of this book. It covered all I needed to cover the syllabus.

[cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As every professor knows, there's no such thing as a perfect textbook; however, Spatz does a pretty good job of making my job easier when teaching basic stats.