Discovering Statistics Using R - Softcover

Field, Andy; Miles, Jeremy; Field, Zoe

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1446200469 ISBN 13: 9781446200469

Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2012

Synopsis

Lecturers - request an e-inspection copy of this text or contact your local SAGE representative to discuss your course needs.

Watch Andy Field's introductory video to Discovering Statistics Using R

Keeping the uniquely humorous and self-deprecating style that has made students across the world fall in love with Andy Field's books, Discovering Statistics Using R takes students on a journey of statistical discovery using R, a free, flexible and dynamically changing software tool for data analysis that is becoming increasingly popular across the social and behavioural sciences throughout the world.

The journey begins by explaining basic statistical and research concepts before a guided tour of the R software environment. Next you discover the importance of exploring and graphing data, before moving onto statistical tests that are the foundations of the rest of the book (for example correlation and regression). You will then stride confidently into intermediate level analyses such as ANOVA, before ending your journey with advanced techniques such as MANOVA and multilevel models. Although there is enough theory to help you gain the necessary conceptual understanding of what you're doing, the emphasis is on applying what you learn to playful and real-world examples that should make the experience more fun than you might expect.

Like its sister textbooks, Discovering Statistics Using R is written in an irreverent style and follows the same ground-breaking structure and pedagogical approach. The core material is augmented by a cast of characters to help the reader on their way, together with hundreds of examples, self-assessment tests to consolidate knowledge, and additional website material for those wanting to learn more.

Given this book's accessibility, fun spirit, and use of bizarre real-world research it should be essential for anyone wanting to learn about statistics using the freely-available R software.

About this title

Review

In statistics, R is the way of the future. The big boys and girls have known this for some time: There are now millions of R users in academia and industry. R is free (as in no cost) and free (as in speech). Andy, Jeremy, and Zoe's book now makes R accessible to the little boys and girls like me and my students. Soon all classes in statistics will be taught in R.

I have been teaching R to psychologists for several years and so I have been waiting for this book for some time. The book is excellent, and it is now the course text for all my statistics classes. I'm pretty sure the book provides all you need to go from statistical novice to working researcher.

Take, for example, the chapter on t-tests. The chapter explains how to compare the means of two groups from scratch. It explains the logic behind the tests, it explains how to do the tests in R with a complete worked example, which papers to read in the unlikely event you do need to go further, and it explains what you need to write in your practical report or paper. But it also goes further, and explains how t-tests and regression are related---and are really the same thing---as part of the general linear model. So this book offers not just the step-by-step guidance needed to complete a particular test, but it also offers the chance to reach the zen state of total statistical understanding.

Prof. Neil Stewart
Warwick University

Field's Discovering Statistics is popular with students for making a sometimes deemed inaccessible topic accessible, in a fun way. In Discovering Statistics Using R, the authors have managed to do this using a statistics package that is known to be powerful, but sometimes deemed just as inaccessible to the uninitiated, all the while staying true to Field's off-kilter approach.

Dr Marcel van Egmond
University of Amsterdam

Probably the wittiest and most amusing of the lot (no, really), this book takes yet another approach: it is 958 pages of R-based stats wisdom (plus online accoutrements)... A thoroughly engaging, expansive, thoughtful and complete guide to modern statistics. Self-deprecating stories lighten the tone, and the undergrad-orientated 'stupid faces' (Brian Haemorrhage, Jane Superbrain, Oliver Twisted, etc.) soon stop feeling like a gimmick, and help to break up the text with useful snippets of stats wisdom. It is very mch a student textbook but it is brilliant... Field et al. is the complete package.
David M. Shuker
AnimJournal of Animal Behaviour

"This work should be in the library of every institution where statistics is taught. It contains much more content than what is required for a beginning or advanced undergraduate course, but instructors for such courses would do well to consider this book; it is priced comparably to books which contain only basic material, and students who are fascinated by the subject may find the additional material a real bonus. The book would also be very good for self-study. Overall, an excellent resource." (R. Bharath Choice 2012-12-01)

The main strength of this book is that it presents a lot of information in an accessible, engaging and irreverent way. The style is informal with interesting excursions into the history of statistics and psychology. There is reference to research papers which illustrate the methods explained, and are also very entertaining. The authors manage to pull off the Herculean task of teaching statistics through the medium of R... All in all, an invaluable resource. (Paul Webb 2013-12-12)

About the Author

Andy Field is Professor of Child Psychopathology at the University of Sussex. He has published over 80 research papers, 29 book chapters, and 17 books mostly on child emotional development and statistics. 

He is the founding editor of the Journal of Experimental Psychopathology and has been an associate editor and editorial board member for the British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, Cognition and Emotion, Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review and Research Synthesis Methods. 

His ability to make statistics accessible and fun has been recognized with local and national teaching awards (University of Sussex, 2001, 2015, 2016; the British Psychological Society, 2007), a prestigious UK National Teaching Fellowship (2010), and the British Psychological Society book award (2006). He adores cats (and dogs), and loves to listen to and play very heavy music. He lives in Brighton with his wonderful wife Zoë and their children.

About this edition

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1446200469
• ISBN 13: 9781446200469
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 957