Research Methods & Statistics in Psychology 4th Edition

Research Methods & Statistics in Psychology, 4th edition, has been substantially revised and updated, and provides a clear and comprehensive survey of research methods, statistical concepts and procedures in psychology today. Clear explanations of experimental and non-experimental designs are provided and there is detailed attention to a wide range of threats to internal and external validity. Quasi-experiments, cross-cultural issues, ethics and the ongoing quantitative-qualitative debate are all fully explored. Statistical procedures are given clear and comprehensive coverage, and include everything needed at all levels of study - from nominal level tests to multi-factorial ANOVA designs and multiple regression. New to the fourth edition are log linear analysis and a detailed examination of effect size and power, enabling students to report very easily the level of power for their findings. Also new for this edition are detailed and illustrated SPSS instructions for all statistical procedures covered in the book, including data entry and interpreting output, thus eliminating the need for an extra SPSS textbook. Each chapter contains a self-test glossary, key terms and exercises. Advice on planning and conducting studies, analysing data and writing up practical reports is given, and a 'good' marked report is included, as well as a complete published qualitative report. A much-requested new feature is advice, for each statistical test, on how to report results in conventional (APA) style. The bestselling research methods text for over a decade, Research Methods & Statistics in Psychology, 4th edition, remains accessible, informative and invaluable to students of psychology and related disciplines at all levels.

Table of Contents:
Preface 1. Psychology and research Science and psychology What is research about? Theory Hypothesis Prediction Empirical and hypothetico-deductive methods How pscyhologists do research The research cycle Planning research 2. Measuring people - variables, samples and the qualitative critique Variables Constructs Operational definitions Reliability and validity Populations Samples Sampling bias Equal probability selection Random and non-random samples The qualitative critique and the quantitative-qualitative debate 3. Use of experimental designs in psychology True experiments Independent and dependent variables The strength of experiments - improving on bad experiments and eliminating causal directions Critique of the experiment Simple experimental designs, independant samples, repeated measures, matched pairs and single participant designs Releated and unrelated designs Factors 4. Validity in experiments, quasi-experiments and non-experimental methods Interpretation of experiments, sources of variance Internal and external validity Confounding - extraneous variables and expectancies in research Field work and quasi-experiments Non-experimental research Control and validity in the laboratory and in the field 5. Observational methods – watching and being with people Observation as technique or overall design Structured observations Controlled and naturalistic observation Qualitative observation Role-play, simulation and diary methods Participant observation Case studies Indirect observation 6. Interview methods – asking people direct questions General questioning issues, structure and disguise Interpersonal variables Interview types Semi-structured interviewing techniques Achieving rapport Recording techniques Surveys Modes of questioning 7. Questionnaires – using psychological scales and tests in research Questionnaires and attitude scales Scale items, styles, problems and pitfalls Constructing an attitude scale Projective tests Psychometrics – intelligence and personality tests, factor analysis Reliability, validity and standardisation of tests including use of SPSS to conduct a reliability analysis 8. Comparison studies – looking across, looking ahead and looking abroad Cross-sectional studies Longitudinal studies Cross-cultural studies Ethnocentrism and other issues in cross-cultural research Readings on culture and 'race' in psychological research 9. Qualitative approaches - problems with positivism Psychology and the positivist paradigm Objections to the conventional paradigm Proposals of the qualitative approaches Examples of qualitative approaches Contemporary qualitative methods 10. Statistics – organising the data Various levels of measurement Measures of central tendency Meaures of dispersion Population, samples and sampling error Frequencies and distributions Graphical representation of data The normal distribution, areas, z values Percentiles, deciles and quartiles Sampling distributions and standard error Skew and kurtosis Checking for normality Introduction to SPSS procedures, data entry and descriptive statistics 11. Significance – was it a real effect? Significance testing, the null and alternative hypotheses Probability Levels of significance Significance testing and rejection regions Power and effect size Type I and Type II errors Directional hypothesis and one or two-tailed tests 12. Testing differences between two samples Parametric tests t test for related and unrelated data Single sample t test Data assumptions for t tests Effect size and issues of power in significance testing Non-parametric tests of difference - Wilcoxon matched pairs and Mann-Whitney U Sign test for categorical data SPSS procedures for two condition difference tests 13. Tests for categorical variables and frequency tables Part 1: Chi-square One variable, two category test 2 x 2 frequency tables General Chi-square for R x C designs Goodness of fit test Effect, size and power Limitations on the use of Chi-square SPSS procedures Part 2: Log-linear analysis Multi-way tables Main and interaction effects SPSS procedures 14. Correlation – the assoc

About the Author :
Hugh Coolican is Principal Lecturer in Psychology at Coventry University, a Chartered Psychologist and an assistant examiner for the International Baccalaureate.

Review :
The new edition of Coolican's book is impressively wide-ranging. It introduces quantitative and qualitative research methods and guides the reader through the research process from the initial identification and formulation of a research question to the preparation of the final report. The style of presentation is informal and appropriate for A'level students and those in the early years of a psychology degree. -- The Psychologist 20041001 "The new edition updates his support to lecturing on a wide range of approaches to psychological research, as specified for the undegraduate curriculum by the British Psychological Society (BPS) in recent years ... The book is replete with interesting and often important published examples." -- David Booth, Neuroimaging in Psychology 20041001