Title: The Zen of empirical research /
Authors: Richards, William D.
Publisher: Hampton Press,
Year: 1998
Subjects: Research; Research Statistical methods
Abstract: The Zen of Empirical Research by Dr. William D. Richards is a friendly, accessible introduction to quantitative research methods and statistics for students - especially for those with an arts background or limited mathematical experience. Developed through classroom use and student input, this text is, above all, a student's text book. Its unique first person conversational approach, informal humor and every day examples make abstract concepts clear and statistics fun. The emphasis is always on understanding the logic behind statistics rather than on math, formulae, or rote problem solving, which ensures that students are able to apply the skills they've learned to answer real research problems.
Contents: "20 Ways to Prove Significance" -- I. Scientific research. 1. Science. 2. Conceptualizing. 3. Operationalizing. 4. Validity and reliability. 5. Sampling -- II. Univariate Statistics. 6. Univariate descriptive statistics. 7. Distributions. 8. The normal curve and samples: sampling distributions. 9. Inferential statistics: from samples to populations. 10. Univariate inferential statistics -- III. Bivariate Descriptive Statistics. 11. Crosstabulation. 12. Strength of relationships: Discrete data. 13. Strength of relationships: Continuous data. 14. Regression -- IV. Hypothesis testing. 15. Statistical significance. 16. Chi-squared. 17. z-test for differences between means. 18. Tests for correlations. 19. More mean differences: z, t, and F -- V. Research approaches. 20. Experiments. 21. Survey research.