Statistics: Concepts and Controversies [With Access Code]

by William I Notz, David S. Moore, William I. Notz

Book Overview

There are books on statistical theory and books on statistical methods. This is neither. It is a book on statistical ideas and statistical reasoning and on their relevance to public policy and to the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 146412566X
• ISBN13: 9781464125669
• Release Date: November 2012
• Publisher: W. H. Freeman
• Length: 656 Pages
• Weight: 1.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.2" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Excellent introduction to concepts.

This book accomplishes what it sets out to accomplish admirably; it sets out the basic concepts of statistics with as little reliance on Math as possible, to give students who are not Math-oriented an idea of the subject. If you are Math-oriented, and already know a bit about statistics, you will not learn much here. But that is not the fault of the book; it is not intended to teach someone with a grounding in the subject, any more than it is a flaw of an intro Biology textbook that it doesn't teach Organic Chemistry. I have a couple of minor quibbles about this book, but they're really too minor to mention, and are certainly too minor to dock it a star for.

Great Book

I was very please with my purchase. I was surprised with the great condition the book was in and it came quickly. The book was in prefect condition and comes in handy for my class

one of David Moore's excellent books on statistics

This was the first of many well written introductory texts by David Moore. It is now in its fourth edition and in paperback form it is very reasonably priced. Moore emphasizes the concepts and not the computational aspects and mathematics. This helps undergraduate students in any discipline to become statistically literate. Moore is both a Professor of Statistics at Purdue University and an educator. He has also served as President of the American Statistical Association. Known for his clear writing style, he has led the way in training statistics to the masses. This book was his first attempt (very successful) and it has been followed by many others including the most recent text which takes an activity-based approach to teaching. Among the concepts presented are: (1) sampling and randomization, (2) why experiment and what designs to use, (3) measurement accuracy, (4) understanding relationships (contingency tables, scatterplots, correlation and regression), (5)index numbers (CPI), (6) the role of government statistics, (7) understanding changes over time, (8) probability, (9) probability through simulation and (10) inference including confidence intervals for means and proportions. The text includes many useful exercises which enhance understanding. Also many nice cartoons are included for humor and enhancing explanations. One cartoon shows a team with seven basketball players of which 6 a short and one is very tall. In the caption the publicists asks the coach "Should we scare the opposition by announcing our mean height or lull them by announcing our median height?" A clear example where the one tall person distorts the picture giving a high value for the mean that does not represent the group while on the other hand the median gives a good representation of the central height for the group but hides the fact that they have a very tall player. The book is great for beginners but is also a good reference book for anyone. It is stimulating and thought provoking.

Great!

Want to be statistics savvy? Don't want or can't handle the math in most texts? Then I recommend this book. Well written for the lay person, with careful thought given to progressive learning of stats concepts. An excellent choice for someone who wants to be able to critically understand social statistics. The exercises and review sections are fun - not often the case in this area of study.

Promotes Good Mathematical and Statistical Habits, as Well as Statistical Literacy

I first came across the fourth edition of this book, and immediately fell in love with both the book and the subject matter. When I pursued graduate study, I picked up a copy of the fifth edition of the book, and routinely gave statistical advice based on its contents to eager recipients. While in grad school, I lent my copy of the fifth edition to a friend struggling to understand statistical concepts even at a rudimentary level (as did most of the students in the program) and she never gave it back- that's how good it was (she later told me that after leaving her hands, it quickly found its way to several other students' hands). The book's success rests solely on two important things- a clear, concise, and sometimes witty presentation of statistical basics, and a minimum of mathematical computation, formulae and Greek letters. This book teaches statistical conepts, their appropriate use, their limitations and most importantly, their abuse. Saying that the text is 'statistics lite' is disrespectful, but saying that the text helps to promote the use of thinking and reasoning when faced with statistics is giving it high praise. While most books on the market emphasize often mindless mathematical computation and the manipulation of arcane formulae, this book eschews that and focuses solely on making sense of statistics, principally those stats that others have generated. Make no mistake: this is not a text for number crunchers, those looking to generate statistics (for this, consult Moore's excellent textbook, Introduction to the Practice of Statistics). The author made a successful attempt to introduce statistical concepts and the thinking and reasoning needed to use them appropriately long before the push to emphasize these aspects (spearheaded by the American Statistical Association) in the teaching of statistics became the rage. The text had absolutely no faults. Learning from it was painless and fun. After reading it, I kinda sorta considered pursuing advanced training in statistics, but then backed off after seeing all of the Greek involved. After reading and using this book, students will finally feel comfortable around means and standard deviations, p-values and null hypotheses. The only other textbook coming close to it is Purves and Pisani's Statistics (now likely in its fourth or fifth edition). A more mathematically rigorous book (one requiring numerical calculations) which also aims to impart a fair degree of comfort around statistics and instill some statistical literacy is Utts and Heckard's Mind on Statistics. In passing, I swear by the book, Statistics- A Spectator Sport, which makes for a good reference on key concepts. I owe Professor Moore a great debt of gratitude for this book, as it opened my eyes to a new world, demystifying a previously intimidating body of knowledge, and helping me immensely to think and to reason through research problems involving a statistical component. One thing is certain: the next