Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics: Using Microsoft Excel presents an often intimidating and difficult subject in a way that is clear, informative, and personable. Neil J. Salkind and Bruce B. Frey guide readers through basic and advanced statistical procedures, from correlation and graph creation to analysis of variance, regression, non-parametric tests, and more. This Sixth Edition offers Excel 2025 for use in statistical analysis, including updated, full-color graphics and coverage of how to use functions and formulas.
Also available 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. Learn more about 979-8-3488-0906-5, Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics: Using Microsoft Excel - Vantage Digital Option, Sixth Edition.
Preface
And Now, About the Sixth Edition. . .
Sage Vantage Features
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Part I: Yippee! Im in Statistics
Chapter 1: Statistics or Sadistics? Its Up to You
Why Statistics?
Descriptive Statistics and Averages
Computing the Mean
Computing the Median
Computing the Mode
What Am I Doing in a Statistics Class?
Ten Ways to Use This Book (and Learn Statistics at the Same Time!)
About the Books Features
Key to Difficulty Icons
Summary
Key Terms
Activities
Review Questions
Critical Thinking Questions
Chapter 2: What Do Your Data Look Like? Summarizing and Picturing
Distributions
How Much Information Is in Your Variable?
Vive la Différence! Understanding Variability
All You Need to Know About Using the Amazing Data Analysis Tools
Computing Every Conceivable Descriptive Statistic
Shaping Things Up
Using the Amazing Data Analysis Tools to Create a Histogram
Summary
Key Terms
Activities
Review Questions
Critical Thinking Questions
Chapter 3: Computing Correlation Coefficients: Ice Cream and Crime
Hows Your Relationship?
Computing a Pearson Correlation Coefficient
Whats It All Mean?
Ice Cream Causes Crime (Association vs. Causation)
And Now . . . Using Excels CORREL Function
Creating a Scatterplot
Other Cool Correlations
Parting Ways: A Bit About Partial Correlations
Summary
Key Terms
Activities
Review Questions
Critical Thinking Questions
Chapter 4: Reliability and Validity: Tell the Truth, Precisely the Truth
Reliability: Getting It Right the First Time
Different Types of Reliability
TestRetest Reliability: Time and Time Again
Internal Consistency Reliability: To Ones Own Self Be True
Interrater Reliability: Agreeing Not to Disagree
How Big Is Big? Interpreting Reliability Coefficients
Validity: Whats the Meaning of Life!?
Validity and Reliability: Really Close Cousins
Summary
Key Terms
Activities
Review Questions
Critical Thinking Questions
Part II: Taking Chances for Fun and Profit
Chapter 5: The Normal Curve: Its Shaped Like a Bell and Its Everywhere!
Distributions and Probabilities
Area Codes: Areas Under the Normal Curve
The Amazing Super-Informative z Score
Using Excel to Compute z Scores
Fat and Skinny Frequency Distributions
Summary
Key Terms
Activities
Review Questions
Critical Thinking Questions
Chapter 6: Hypotheticals and You: Making Guesses
Samples and Populations
The Null Hypothesis
The Research Hypothesis
A Closer Look at Our Two Favorite Hypotheses
What Makes a Good Research Hypothesis?
Summary
Key Terms
Activities
Review Questions
Critical Thinking Questions
Chapter 7: Significance: Not Everything That Can Be Counted Counts
The Concept of Significance
If Only We Were Perfect
Type I or Type II: Errors in Inferential Statistics
Significance Versus Meaningfulness
An Introduction to Inferential Statistics
An Introduction to Tests of Significance
Be Even More Confident
Summary
Key Terms
Activities
Review Questions
Critical Thinking Questions
Part III: Significantly Different: Using Inferential Statistics
Chapter 8: Single Samples: One Group All Alone
Introduction to the Single-Sample z Test
Computing the z Test Statistic
Using Excel to Perform a t Test
Special Effects: Do They Matter?
Summary
Key Terms
Activities
Review Questions
Critical Thinking Questions
Chapter 9: t(ea) for Two: Comparing Two Means
The Classic Group Comparison: Independent t Test
The Effect Size for a Two-Group Comparison
Using Excel to Perform an Independent t Test
One Group Compared to Itself: Paired-Samples t Test
Using Excel to Perform a Paired-Samples t Test
Summary
Key Terms
Activities
Review Questions
Critical Thinking Questions
Chapter 10: More Than Two Groups? Analysis of Variance to the Rescue
Different Flavors of Analysis of Variance
Computing the F Test Statistic
Using Excel for One-Way Analysis of Variance
The Effect Size for One-Way ANOVA
Summary
Key Terms
Activities
Review Questions
Critical Thinking Questions
Chapter 11: Two (or More) ANOVAs in One: Factorial Analysis of Variance
Factorial Analysis of Variance
A New Flavor of ANOVA
The Main Event: Main Effects in Factorial ANOVA
Even More Interesting: Interaction Effects
Using Excel to Conduct a Factorial Analysis of Variance
Computing the Effect Size for Factorial ANOVA
Summary
Key Terms
Activities
Review Questions
Critical Thinking Questions
Chapter 12: Correlation Coefficients and Regression: Can You Relate?
Remember the Correlation Coefficient?
Computing the Test Statistic
Linear Regression
Drawing the Worlds Best Line (for Your Data)
How Good Is Your Prediction?
Using Excel to Compute the Regression Line
Multiple Regression: The More Predictors the Better? Maybe
Summary
Key Terms
Activities
Review Questions
Critical Thinking Questions
Part IV: More Statistics! More Tools! More Fun!
Chapter 13: Chi-Square and Some Other Nonparametric Tests: What to Do When
Youre Not Normal
Introduction to Nonparametric Statistics
Introduction to the Goodness-of-Fit (One-Sample) Chi-Square
Computing the Goodness-of-Fit Chi-Square Test Statistic
Introduction to the Chi-Square Test of Independence
Using Excel to Perform Chi-Square Tests
Other Nonparametric Tests You Should Know About
Summary
Key Terms
Activities
Review Questions
Critical Thinking Questions
Chapter 14: Some Other (Important) Statistical Stuff You Should Know About
Sophisticated Group Comparisons
Sophisticated Correlational Analyses
Its Not About What Data Are Mine, Its About What Data Are Mined
Using Chatbots for Statistical Analyses
Summary
Key Terms
Appendices: Information Never Ends!
Appendix A: Excel-erate Your Learning
Appendix B: Tables
Appendix C: Data Sets
Appendix D: Answers to Practice Questions
Appendix E: MathJust the Basics
Appendix F: The 10 Commandments of Data Collection
Appendix G: Working With Copilot
Appendix H: The RewardThe Brownie Recipe
Glossary
Index
Neil J. Salkind received his PhD in human development from the University of Maryland, and after teaching for 35 years at the University of Kansas, he was Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology and Research in Education, where he collaborated with colleagues and work with students. His early interests were in the area of childrens cognitive development, and after research in the areas of cognitive style and (what was then known as) hyperactivity, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolinas Bush Center for Child and Family Policy. His work then changed direction to focus on child and family policy, specifically the impact of alternative forms of public support on various child and family outcomes. He delivered more than 150 professional papers and presentations; written more than 100 trade and textbooks; and is the author of Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics (SAGE), Theories of Human Development (SAGE), and Exploring Research (Prentice Hall). He has edited several encyclopedias, including the Encyclopedia of Human Development, the Encyclopedia of Measurement and Statistics, and the Encyclopedia of Research Design. He was editor of Child Development Abstracts and Bibliography for 13 years. He lived in Lawrence, Kansas, where he liked to read, swim with the River City Sharks, work as the proprietor and sole employee of big boy press, bake brownies (see www.statisticsforpeople.com for the recipe), and poke around old Volvos and old houses.
Bruce B. Frey, PhD, is an award-winning researcher, author, teacher, and professor of educational psychology at the University of Kansas. He is the editor of The SAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation and the SAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Design. In addition to being the lead author for The Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics series, his books for Sage include Theres a Stat for That!, and 100 Questions (and Answers) About Tests and Measurement. He also wrote Statistics Hacks for OReilly Media. In his spare time, Bruce leads a secret life as Professor Bubblegum, host of a YouTube channel and Echo Valley, a podcast that celebrates bubblegum pop music of the late 1960s. The show is wildly popular with the young people.
