Critical Statistics

Awarded the 2019 Most Promising New Textbook Award by the Textbook & Academic Authors Association.

This accessible and entertaining new textbook provides students with the knowledge and skills they need to understand the barrage of numbers encountered in their everyday lives and studies. Almost all the statistics in the news, on social media or in scientific reports are based on just a few core concepts, including measurement (ensuring we count the right thing), causation (determining whether one thing causes another) and sampling (using just a few people to understand a whole population). By explaining these concepts in plain language, without complex mathematics, this book prepares students to meet the statistical world head on and to begin their own quantitative research projects.

Ideal for students facing statistical research for the first time, or for anyone interested in understanding more about the numbers in the news, this textbook helps students to see beyond the headlines and behind the numbers.

Autorentext

Robert de Vries is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Kent, UK.

Inhalt

1. 99% of statistics are made up
2. Where do numbers come from?
3. Samples, samples everywhere
4. Measure for measure
5. What does it mean to be average?
6. Fraction of a man
7. Cause and effect
8. Bad graphics
9. Context is everything
10. Do it yourself