Dr. William Tooke

Psychological Statistics (PSY206)

Rarely do students become psychology majors because they have a strong interest in statistics. This is what is known as an "understatement." Most of you may be wondering why this subject is even a required portion of the psychology curriculum. You may also be wondering why understanding the meaning of a figure like this....

....is even relevant to your desire to do what you have been led to believe psychologists do. The overall goal of this course is to demonstrate the many ways that the science and practice of psychology are completely dependent upon a probabilistic view of human behavior. While this is bad news for "talk show" psychology, it should encourage those of you who look forward to learning how to make reasoned and responsible judgments regarding why people do what they do.

If you would like to view the syllabus for this course, click here.

Here's a useful flow chart dealing with issues regarding when certain statistical tests should be used as a function of the design of the experiment.

Here's something else interesting...Stats Rap!

I have listed below some web links to a variety of statistics-related resources. I hope that you will consult them and that you will find them useful, whether you are interested in them for purposes of additional tutoring, alternative presentation of topics, etc.

HyperStat Online - This is an introductory-level, hypertext textbook presented by David M. Lane of Rice University.

Introductory Statistics: Concepts, Models, and Applications by David Stockburger - Another on-line text.

StatSoft - Yet another on-line text. This one includes more advanced material along with the introductory stuff.

VassarStats: Statistical Computation Website - This is a great site dedicated to statistical computation. You can analyze data on this site using the collection of   interactive computational procedures provided.

StatNotes: Online Textbook - G. David Garson's collection of information, ranging from introductory to complex. An excellent source of explanation and examples.

AmoebaWeb: Statistics - A bunch of resources related to statistical analysis in psychological science.