Essential Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences

About the Book

Essential Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences delivers clear, concise, and relevant statistics instruction to students so they can better understand the world around them. Award-winning teacher and author Gregory J. Privitera relates statistics to the behavioral sciences using current, practical research examples and provides robust pedagogy throughout, allowing students to continually check their comprehension and hone their skills. Carefully developed features and exercises seamlessly integrate IBM® SPSS® support. Extensive supporting features and a conversational tone throughout the book make it approachable while helping students better understand the reasoning and context for statistics. The Third Edition highlights the latest thinking on research transparency so students can use statistics properly and recognize their misuse.

Sage Vantage Learning Platform
This text is offered in Sage Vantage, an intuitive learning platform that integrates quality Sage textbook content with assignable multimedia activities and auto-graded assessments to drive student engagement and ensure accountability. Unparalleled in its ease of use and built for dynamic teaching and learning, Vantage offers customizable LMS integration and best-in-class support.

Highlights

• SPSS in Focus Screencasts walk students through using SPSS for each statistical technique.
• NEW! An AI Literacy module prepares students to engage confidently with today’s AI tools through an interactive, outcomes-focused experience—with minimal instructor lift and no course redesign required. Available exclusively in Sage Vantage and written by professors who teach and publish about AI, the AI Information Literacy, Academic Integrity, and Responsible AI Use integrates video, data driven examples, applied activities, Knowledge Checks, and built-in assessments that help instructors track student understanding. Focused on strengthening critical thinking, the module teaches students how to evaluate AI outputs for accuracy and bias while developing responsible prompting strategies that support academic success without compromising students′ intellectual growth.
• NEW! A suite of assessment tools that are auto-graded and easy to assign:
  • Knowledge Checks occur at the end of each major section in the eBook. These low-stakes questions help students make sure they understand the material before moving on.
  • Practice Problems at the end of the chapter are students′ opportunity to check their own learning. These formative problem sets, based on questions from the end-of-chapter assessments, give students an opportunity to try out their skills with a mix of multiple choice and numeric entry responses. The "Try Another Version" feature allows students to make another attempt with a similar question aligned to the same learning objective.
  • The Chapter Quiz tests the major concepts in the chapter with a variety of question types, including multi-part word problems similar to ones they might encounter on an exam. Each part builds on the previous one to reinforce critical thinking and procedural understanding—for example, defining the question, identifying variables, and solving equations in sequence. Students can receive immediate feedback, and their results sync automatically to the Vantage gradebook and your LMS, with no extra grading required.
• NEW! Available in Practice Problems, the Try Another Version feature supports skill-building through versioned practice. Students can attempt similar questions with new variables, aligned to the same learning objective, Bloom’s level, and level of rigor—ideal for targeted repetition and mastery.
• NEW! Numeric input lets students enter exact numerical answers in all assessment types—ideal for statistics problems that require precise values and calculations.
• NEW! All tables and figures in both the assessments and the eBook are now downloadable.

Table of Contents:
About the Author Acknowledgments Preface to the Instructor To the Student—How to Use SPSS With This Book Part I: Introduction and Descriptive Statistics 1: Introduction to Statistics 2: Summarizing Data: Frequency Distributions in Tables and Graphs 3: Summarizing Data: Central Tendency 4: Summarizing Data: Variability Part II: Probability and the Foundations of Inferential Statistics 5: Probability, Normal Distributions, and z Scores 6: Characteristics of the Sample Mean 7: Hypothesis Testing: Significance, Effect Size, Estimation, and Power Part III: Making Inferences About One or Two Means 8: Testing Means: One-Sample t Test With Confidence Intervals 9: Testing Means: Two-Independent-Sample t Test With Confidence Intervals 10: Testing Means: Related-Samples t Test With Confidence Intervals Part IV: Making Inferences About The Variability of Two or More Means 11: One-Way Analysis of Variance: Between-Subjects and Within-Subjects (Repeated-Measures) Designs 12: Two-Way Analysis of Variance: Between-Subjects Factorial Design Part V: Making Inferences About Patterns, Prediction, and Nonparametric Tests 13: Correlation and Linear Regression 14: Chi-Square Tests: Goodness of Fit and the Test for Independence Appendix A. An Overview of Core Statistical Concepts Taught In This Book Appendix B: Basic Math Review and Summation Notation Appendix C: SPSS General Instructions Guide Appendix D. Statistical Tables Appendix E: Solutions for Even-Numbered Problems Glossary References Index

About the Author :
Gregory J. Privitera is a three-time national-award-winning author and a professor of psychology at St. Bonaventure University where he is a recipient of its highest teaching honor, The Award for Professional Excellence in Teaching, and its highest honor for scholarship, The Award for Professional Excellence in Research and Publication. Dr. Privitera received his PhD in behavioral neuroscience in the field of psychology at the State University of New York at Buffalo and continued with his postdoctoral research at Arizona State University. His texts span diverse topics in psychology and the behavioral sciences and include an introductory psychology text, three statistics texts, two research methods texts, and multiple other texts bridging knowledge creation across health, health care, and analytics. In addition, Dr. Privitera has authored more than three dozen peer-reviewed papers aimed at advancing our understanding of health, health literacy, and informing policy in health care. His research has earned recognition by the American Psychological Association and in media to include Oprah’s Magazine, Time Magazine and the Wall Street Journal. He mentors a variety of undergraduate research projects at St. Bonaventure University, where dozens of students, many of whom have gone on to earn graduate and doctoral degrees at various institutions, have coauthored and presented research work. In addition to his teaching, research, and advisement, Dr. Privitera is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, is an identical twin, and is married with two daughters, Grace Ann and Charlotte Jane, and two sons, Aiden Andrew and Luca James.