The Significance Test Controversy: A Reader - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0202300684 ISBN 13: 9780202300689

Publisher: AldineTransaction, 1970

Synopsis

Tests of significance have been a key tool in the research kit of behavioral scientists for nearly fifty years, but their widespread and uncritical use has recently led to a rising volume of controversy about their usefulness. This book gathers the central papers in this continuing debate, brings the issues into clear focus, points out practical problems and philosophical pitfalls involved in using the tests, and provides a benchmark from which further analysis can proceed.

The papers deal with some of the basic philosophy of science, mathematical and statistical assumptions connected with significance tests and the problems of the interpretation of test results, but the work is essentially non-technical in its emphasis. The collection succeeds in raising a variety of questions about the value of the tests; taken together, the questions present a strong case for vital reform in test use, if not for their total abandonment in research.

The book is designed for practicing researchers-those not extensively trained in mathematics and statistics that must nevertheless regularly decide if and how tests of significance are to be used-and for those training for research. While controversy has been centered in sociology and psychology, and the book will be especially useful to researchers and students in those fields, its importance is great across the spectrum of the scientific disciplines in which statistical procedures are essential-notably political science, economics, and the other social sciences, education, and many biological fields as well.

Denton E. Morrison is professor, Department of Sociology, Michigan State University.

Ramon E. Henkel is associate professor emeritus, Department of Sociology University of Maryland. He teaches as part of the graduate faculty.

About this title

Review:

-This is a comprehensive collection of papers focused on the use of significance tests for inferential purposes.... The strength of the book lies in the diverse perspectives of the papers.- --Lews F. Carter, Social Forces -This book by Morrison and Henkel is a book for all those who use tests of statistical significance. More, it is a book for all those who read scientific reports which use tests of statistical significance. This means it is a book for nearly all of us.- --Raoul Naroll, American Anthropologist -[The] intention of the book is to make practicing behavioral scientists more critically aware of some of the limitations of their most ubiquitous statistical technique.- --P. S. Taylor, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series D (The Statistician) "This is a comprehensive collection of papers focused on the use of significance tests for inferential purposes.... The strength of the book lies in the diverse perspectives of the papers." --Lews F. Carter, Social Forces "This book by Morrison and Henkel is a book for all those who use tests of statistical significance. More, it is a book for all those who read scientific reports which use tests of statistical significance. This means it is a book for nearly all of us." --Raoul Naroll, American Anthropologist "[The] intention of the book is to make practicing behavioral scientists more critically aware of some of the limitations of their most ubiquitous statistical technique." --P. S. Taylor, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series D (The Statistician) "This is a comprehensive collection of papers focused on the use of significance tests for inferential purposes.... The strength of the book lies in the diverse perspectives of the papers." --Lews F. Carter, Social Forces "This book by Morrison and Henkel is a book for all those who use tests of statistical significance. More, it is a book for all those who read scientific reports which use tests of statistical significance. This means it is a book for nearly all of us." --Raoul Naroll, American Anthropologist "[The] intention of the book is to make practicing behavioral scientists more critically aware of some of the limitations of their most ubiquitous statistical technique." --P. S. Taylor, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series D (The Statistician)

About this edition

• Publisher: AldineTransaction
• Publication date: 1970
• ISBN 10: 0202300684
• ISBN 13: 9780202300689
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 347
• Editor: Morrison Denton E., Henkel Ramon E.