This ''friendly,'' accessible textbook emphasizes the analysis of empirical data, which helps students learn to select proper statistical analyses for problems, explain why an analysis is appropriate, calculate the statistics, and write explanations of what the analyses show. Designed to help students develop an intuitive understanding of statistical reasoning, the book gives thorough explanations and presents interesting problems that emphasize the analysis of data rather than mathematical statistics, providing the student with a conceptual understanding and a mastery of computational formulas. Problems, which are an integral part of the text, are from the fields of psychology, sociology, nursing, biology, education, and business. In addition, Spatz tells the story of the history of statistics in a friendly style. Some of the questions that pioneers such as Galton, Fisher, Pearson, Gosset, and Quetelet researched are used as worked-out examples or given as problems, giving students a glimpse of the excitement that prevailed when statistics as a field was just beginning.
