Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This book on introductory social statistics focuses on how statistical techniques are applied in sociological research. In addition to the usual range of topics in descriptive and inductive statistics (frequency, central tendency, dispersion, confidence intervals, significance testing, and correlation and regression), it includes essays and exercises that illustrate the close connection between sociological theory and practice, on one hand, and quantitative reasoning, on the other. Extensive SPSS and Internet applications are included.
Synopsis
While Applying Social Statistics is about social statistics and includes all of the topics generally covered in similar texts, it is first and foremost a book about how sociologists use statistics. Its emphasis is on statistical reasoning in sociology and on showing how these principles can be applied to numerous problems in a wide variety of contexts; to answer effectively the question what's it for. A main learning objective is to help students understand how and why social statistics is used. Yet, Weinstein's style and substance recognize that it is of equal-or even greater-importance that they begin to learn how to apply these principles and techniques themselves.