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Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics
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Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics

Eighth Edition


October 2025 | 400 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
The bestselling Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics teaches an often intimidating and difficult subject in a way that is informative, personable, and clear. The authors take students through various statistical procedures, beginning with correlation and graphical representation of data and ending with inferential techniques and analysis of variance. In addition, the text provides instruction in SPSS®, and includes reviews of more advanced techniques, such as reliability, validity, introductory non-parametric statistics, and more.

The Eighth Edition features a streamlined structure, reducing the total chapters from 19 to 14 for improved clarity and focus. Content has been thoroughly revised for better readability, and the text is now available in full color. It's also available in Sage Vantage, an easy-to-use learning platform that offers practice problems, end-of-chapter quizzes, author videos, data activities, and other interactive tools to support student learning.
 
A Note to the Student
 
Acknowledgments
 
And Now, About the Eighth Edition …
 
Sage Vantage Features
 
About the Authors
 
Part I: Yippee! I’m in Statistics
 
Chapter 1: Statistics or Sadistics? It’s Up to You
Why Statistics?

 
Descriptive Statistics and Averages

 
Computing the Mean

 
Computing the Median

 
Computing the Mode

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 2: What Do Your Data Look Like? Summarizing and Picturing Distributions
How Much Information Is in Your Variable?

 
Vive la Différence! Understanding Variability

 
The Standard Deviation

 
Using SPSS to Compute Descriptive Statistics

 
Shaping Things Up

 
Using the Computer (SPSS, That Is) to Illustrate Data

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 3: Computing Correlation Coefficients: Ice Cream and Crime
How’s Your Relationship?

 
Computing a Pearson Correlation Coefficient

 
What’s It All Mean?

 
Ice Cream Causes Crime (Association vs. Causation)

 
Using SPSS to Compute a Correlation Coefficient

 
Other Cool Correlations

 
Parting Ways: A Bit About Partial Correlations

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 4: Reliability and Validity: Tell the Truth, Precisely the Truth
Reliability: Getting It Right the First Time

 
Different Types of Reliability

 
Internal Consistency Reliability: To One’s Own Self Be True

 
Interrater Reliability: Agreeing Not to Disagree

 
How Big Is Big? Interpreting Reliability Coefficients

 
Validity: What’s the Meaning of Life!?

 
Validity and Reliability: Really Close Cousins

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Part II: Taking Chances for Fun and Profit
 
Chapter 5: The Normal Curve: It's Shaped Like a Bell and It's Everywhere!
Distributions and Probabilities

 
Area Codes: Areas Under the Normal Curve

 
The Amazing Super-Informative z Score

 
Using SPSS to Compute z Scores

 
Fat and Skinny Frequency Distributions

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 6: Hypotheticals and You: Making Guesses
Samples and Populations

 
The Null Hypothesis

 
The Research Hypothesis

 
What Makes a Good Research Hypothesis?

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 7: Significance: Not Everything That Can Be Counted Counts
The Concept of Significance

 
Significance Versus Meaningfulness

 
An Introduction to Inferential Statistics

 
An Introduction to Tests of Significance

 
Be Even More Confident

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Part III: Significantly Different: Using Inferential Statistics
 
Chapter 8: Single Samples: One Group All Alone
Introduction to the Single-Sample z Test

 
Computing the z Test Statistic

 
Using SPSS to Perform a z Test t Test

 
Special Effects: Do They Matter?

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 9: t(ea) for Two: Comparing Two Means
The Classic Group Comparison: Independent t Test

 
The Effect Size for a Two-Group Comparison

 
Using SPSS to Perform an Independent t Test

 
Using SPSS to Perform a Paired-Samples t Test

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 10: More Than Two Groups?: Analysis of Variance to the Rescue
Different Flavors of Analysis of Variance

 
Computing the F Test Statistic

 
Using SPSS to Compute the F Ratio

 
The Effect Size for One-Way ANOVA

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 11: Two (or More) ANOVAs in One: Factorial Analysis of Variance
Factorial Analysis of Variance

 
A New Flavor of ANOVA

 
The Main Event: Main Effects in Factorial ANOVA

 
Even More Interesting: Interaction Effects

 
Using SPSS to Conduct a Factorial Analysis of Variance

 
Computing the Effect Size for Factorial ANOVA

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 12: Correlation Coefficients and Regression: Can You Relate?
Remember the Correlation Coefficient?

 
Computing the Test Statistic

 
Linear Regression

 
Drawing the World’s Best Line (for Your Data)

 
How Good Is Your Prediction?

 
Using SPSS to Compute the Regression Line

 
Multiple Regression: The More Predictors the Better? Maybe

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Part IV: More Statistics! More Tools! More Fun!
 
Chapter 13: Chi-Square and Some Other Nonparametric Tests: What to Do When You're Not Normal
Introduction to Nonparametric Statistics

 
Introduction to the Goodness-of-Fit (One-Sample) Chi-Square

 
Computing the Goodness-of-Fit Chi-Square Test Statistic

 
Introduction to the Chi-Square Test of Independence

 
Using SPSS to Perform Chi-Square Tests

 
Other Nonparametric Tests You Should Know About

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Activities

 
Review Questions

 
Critical Thinking Questions

 
 
Chapter 14: Some Other (Important) Statistical Stuff You Should Know About
Sophisticated Group Comparisons

 
Sophisticated Correlational Analyses

 
It’s Not about What Data is Mine, it’s about What Data is Mined

 
Using Chatbots for Statistical Analyses

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
 
Appendices: Information Never Ends!
 
Appendix A: SPSS Statistics in Less Than 30 Minutes
 
Appendix B: Tables
 
Appendix C: Data Sets
 
Appendix D: Answers to Practice Questions
 
Appendix E: Math: Just the Basics
 
Appendix F: The 10 Commandments of Data Collection
 
Appendix G: The Reward
 
Glossary

Of all the statistics textbooks that I have reviewed, Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics is by far the best.

Brittany Landrum
University of Dallas

[Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics] eases students into concepts with clear intention for each chapter and prompts them to connect everything they've learned.

Russell Brandon
Mississippi State University

Two of my favorite statistical authors being together in one book may be a dream come true. Both Salkind's and Frey's texts have been a survival manual both for me and for my students. There are very few texts that carry both the weight of statistical grandeur along with the depth of content like this new text does. This is a masterpiece of statistical reference data that meshes the best parts of both authors and fills in the gap following the passing of Salkind. I can't wait to get this new text into the hands of my students, and I know that this new book is going to become a foundational pillar in all of my classes.

Jesse Buchholz
Northwest Nazarene University

This book has a successful conversion mission. Indeed, it succeeds in converting statistics-shy students into statistics-savvy ardent learners. The re-appearance of this mind-catching treasure is a major plus in the effective teaching and easy learning of an introductory course in descriptive and inferential statistics.

Abdol Abdollahy Zarandi
University of Texas at El Paso

Salkind and Frey have written an informative and comprehensive text for the introductory statistics course that is also funny and disarming. My graduate students —many of whom exhibit an initial wariness toward math courses and long-dormant math skills—have found it to be an unexpected pleasure and an accessible read.

Diana Dansereau
Boston University

Many students appear unaware that they are using statistics and research methods in their daily lives. When I mention statistics in the research methods course, some get very anxious and remind me that they are not "math people". Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics is a helpful supplemental text for a research methods course. It provides a different perspective regarding how statistics are used and helps students retrieve and build on their statistics knowledge. The text uses humor and interesting examples and helps illustrate why certain research issues are important.

Adele Crudden
Mississippi State University

I love the layout of the text and the detailed and straightforward explanations of many of the concepts that students often struggle to comprehend when it comes to statistics. The authors' introduction of SPSS and their step-by-step instructions for its use was superior to any other texts that I considered.

Craig Peck
Simpson College

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ISBN: 9781071855508
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