Understanding Psychology as a Science: An Introduction to Scientific and Statistical Inference
"An engrossing read.  Dienes relates statistical controversies to general issues in the philosophy of science, and in so doing puts common misconceptions right.  The book is full of advice that makes the difference between a mediocre and expert researcher. Despite some difficult passages I was drawn into the story and imagine that when reading about statistics - remarkable!  In sum: A very useful correction to our typical methods courses for advanced undergrads, graduates, and even many established researchers." - Professor Josef Perner, University of Salzburg"Quite remarkable. A text book on research methods that actually explains how science works, why it has the exciting texture that it does and what the philosophical principles are that underlie it. It will change the way in which research methods courses are taught in the social sciences which, I think, is a very good thing...This volume has the potential to stimulate a dramatic and welcome shift in how social scientists are trained." - Arthur Reber, Broeklundian Professor, Emeritus, CUNY"."I can thoroughly recommend this book. Dienes makes topics that are often dull interesting, covers positions he does not favour fairly and comprehensively, and describes all the important issues succinctly without covering the many things that, whilst interesting to people working in the field, are probably irrelevant to a basic grounding. In short, a really nice, brief, but comprehensive account of the important issues underlying psychology understanding." - Dr Roland Baddeley, University of Bristol, UK "This book presents psychology students with a careful line of argument, and is in itself an excellent example of how to write. It provides an authoritative and lucid treatment of the scientific nature of psychology that will appeal to undergraduates and anyone else interested in the tussle between science and irrationality." - Morag Maclean, Oxford Brookes University, UK.