This course is designed for
the serious junior or senior psychology major who is sincerely
interested in advanced statistical techniques as applied to contemporary
problems of modern scientific psychology. As such, this course is designed to teach many
of the concepts needed to understand, conduct, and interpret common
statistical procedures and techniques. The emphasis
of this course is on the acquisition of conceptual, rather than
procedural, knowledge that can be demonstrated by selecting, applying
and interpreting appropriate statistical procedures.
Although this course is designed primarily
to teach skills related to using the statistical techniques necessary
to conduct behavioral and social science research, students from
any field will benefit from a solid background in basic statistical
methods. Professionals
in almost every field are required to read, interpret, and use
research reports. These reports usually rely on statistical
analyses to draw conclusions and suggest courses of action. Knowledge
of statistics is therefore important to help one understand and
interpret these reports. Research, employing statistical
analyses, is not only becoming increasingly important in our working
life, but is clearly having a greater impact on our everyday lives
as well. Everyday in newspapers, magazines and on television,
studies are reported and evidence is pointed to that "proves" some
relationship or conclusion. Survey results, reported almost
daily, "demonstrate" some preference for one view over
another. Students who apply themselves to this course will
acquire skills that are valuable for critically interpreting such
data based conclusions.

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