Author : Joel Best
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 160 pages
File Size : 24,35 MB
Release : 2013-09-14
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0520279980
This edition updates benchmarks, includes a new chapter on rhetoric, updated a few examples, and thoroughly updated the bibliography.
Author : Joel Best
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 218 pages
File Size : 47,26 MB
Release : 2012-08-07
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0520953517
Here, by popular demand, is the updated edition to Joel Best's classic guide to understanding how numbers can confuse us. In his new afterword, Best uses examples from recent policy debates to reflect on the challenges to improving statistical literacy. Since its publication ten years ago, Damned Lies and Statistics has emerged as the go-to handbook for spotting bad statistics and learning to think critically about these influential numbers.
Author : Robert Szafran
Publisher : SAGE
Page : 457 pages
File Size : 11,41 MB
Release : 2011-10-20
Category : Computers
ISBN : 1412991323
"The book is divided into three Parts: Part One has chapters that introduce data analysis and SPSS; Part Two contains eight chapters on descriptive statistics that begin with frequency tables and go through multiple regression; and Part Three includes six chapters on inferential statistics. Part One: Getting Started begins by answering some questions most students have right at the start © questions like why study data analysis and how much math and computer knowledge is required? Essential concepts from research methods relevant for data analysis are also explained. Part Two: Descriptive Statistics: Answering Questions about Your Data demonstrates procedures to use when the analyst is only concerned with describing the cases for which he or she actually has data. Statistics summarizing single variables (univariate statistics) are presented first and then statistics summarizing relationships between variables (multivariate statistics). Frequency tables, measures of central tendency, measures of dispersion, crosstabs, measures of association, subgroup means, and regression are all covered as are bar charts, pie charts, histograms, and clustered bar charts. Part Three: Inferential Statistics: Answering Questions about Populations explains procedures which allow the analyst to draw conclusions about the population from which his or her sample of cases was randomly selected. It begins with a simple chapter on the statistical theory behind inferential statistics. A four-step approach to hypothesis testing is introduced in the next chapter and demonstrated with one-sample t test hypotheses. The remaining chapters present different types of hypothesis tests including paired-samples, independent-samples, one and two-way ANOVA, and chi-square"--Provided by publisher.
Author : Pamela Meyer
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
Page : 255 pages
File Size : 33,60 MB
Release : 2010-07-20
Category : Self-Help
ISBN : 1429988533
Liespotting shows how to use the latest techniques to spot deception in work and life situations. GET TO THE TRUTH People--friends, family members, work colleagues, salespeople--lie to us all the time. Daily, hourly, constantly. None of us is immune, and all of us are victims. According to studies by several different researchers, most of us encounter nearly 200 lies a day. Now there's something we can do about it. Pamela Meyer's Liespotting links three disciplines--facial recognition training, interrogation training, and a comprehensive survey of research in the field--into a specialized body of information developed specifically to help business leaders detect deception and get the information they need to successfully conduct their most important interactions and transactions. Some of the nation's leading business executives have learned to use these methods to root out lies in high stakes situations. Liespotting for the first time brings years of knowledge--previously found only in the intelligence community, police training academies, and universities--into the corporate boardroom, the manager's meeting, the job interview, the legal proceeding, and the deal negotiation. WHAT'S IN THE BOOK? Learn communication secrets previously known only to a handful of scientists, interrogators and intelligence specialists. Liespotting reveals what's hiding in plain sight in every business meeting, job interview and negotiation: - The single most dangerous facial expression to watch out for in business & personal relationships - 10 questions that get people to tell you anything - A simple 5-step method for spotting and stopping the lies told in nearly every high-stakes business negotiation and interview - Dozens of postures and facial expressions that should instantly put you on Red Alert for deception - The telltale phrases and verbal responses that separate truthful stories from deceitful ones - How to create a circle of advisers who will guarantee your success
Author : Gerald Watkins Bracey
Publisher : Heinemann Educational Books
Page : 214 pages
File Size : 22,5 MB
Release : 2006
Category : Education
ISBN :
Stats, stats, stats. It seems everything written about education today is full of stats. With this book, nimble-minded number cruncher and award-winning researcher Gerald Bracey takes your hand and walks you through the process of figuring out the meaning behind the figures. You don't need to be a math whiz to follow Bracey because he writes with clarity and humor, explicitly defining statistical terminology in easy-to-understand language and even offering you thirty-two specific principles for assessing the quality of research as you read it.
Author : Mats Alvesson
Publisher : SAGE
Page : 154 pages
File Size : 29,26 MB
Release : 2013-02-28
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1446290484
All researchers want to produce interesting and influential theories. A key step in all theory development is formulating innovative research questions that will result in interesting and significant research. Traditional textbooks on research methods tend to ignore, or gloss over, actual ways of constructing research questions. In this text, Alvesson and Sandberg develop a problematization methodology for identifying and challenging the assumptions underlying existing theories and for generating research questions that can lead to more interesting and influential theories, using examples from across the social sciences. Established methods of generating research questions in the social sciences tend to focus on ′gap-spotting′, which means that existing literature remains largely unchallenged. The authors show the dangers of conventional approaches, providing detailed ideas for how one can work through such problems and formulate novel research questions that challenge existing theories and produce more imaginative empirical studies. Constructing Research Questions is essential reading for any researcher looking to formulate research questions that are interesting and novel.
Author : Joel Best
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 222 pages
File Size : 15,11 MB
Release : 2004-09-06
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0520930029
In this sequel to the acclaimed Damned Lies and Statistics, which the Boston Globe said "deserves a place next to the dictionary on every school, media, and home-office desk," Joel Best continues his straightforward, lively, and humorous account of how statistics are produced, used, and misused by everyone from researchers to journalists. Underlining the importance of critical thinking in all matters numerical, Best illustrates his points with examples of good and bad statistics about such contemporary concerns as school shootings, fatal hospital errors, bullying, teen suicides, deaths at the World Trade Center, college ratings, the risks of divorce, racial profiling, and fatalities caused by falling coconuts. More Damned Lies and Statistics encourages all of us to think in a more sophisticated and skeptical manner about how statistics are used to promote causes, create fear, and advance particular points of view. Best identifies different sorts of numbers that shape how we think about public issues: missing numbers are relevant but overlooked; confusing numbers bewilder when they should inform; scary numbers play to our fears about the present and the future; authoritative numbers demand respect they don’t deserve; magical numbers promise unrealistic, simple solutions to complex problems; and contentious numbers become the focus of data duels and stat wars. The author's use of pertinent, socially important examples documents the life-altering consequences of understanding or misunderstanding statistical information. He demystifies statistical measures by explaining in straightforward prose how decisions are made about what to count and what not to count, what assumptions get made, and which figures are brought to our attention. Best identifies different sorts of numbers that shape how we think about public issues. Entertaining, enlightening, and very timely, this book offers a basis for critical thinking about the numbers we encounter and a reminder that when it comes to the news, people count—in more ways than one.
Author : Stephen K. Campbell
Publisher : Courier Corporation
Page : 210 pages
File Size : 40,23 MB
Release : 2012-05-14
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 0486140512
Nontechnical survey helps improve ability to judge statistical evidence and to make better-informed decisions. Discusses common pitfalls: unrealistic estimates, improper comparisons, premature conclusions, and faulty thinking about probability. 1974 edition.
Author : Steven Woloshin
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 154 pages
File Size : 23,28 MB
Release : 2008-11-30
Category : Family & Relationships
ISBN : 0520252225
Understanding risk -- Putting risk in perspective -- Risk charts : a way to get perspective -- Judging the benefit of a health intervention -- Not all benefits are equal : understand the outcome -- Consider the downsides -- Do the benefits outweight the downsides? -- Beware of exaggerated importance -- Beware of exaggerated certainty -- Who's behind the numbers?
Author : Carl T. Bergstrom
Publisher : Random House Trade Paperbacks
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 40,81 MB
Release : 2021-04-20
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0525509208
Bullshit isn’t what it used to be. Now, two science professors give us the tools to dismantle misinformation and think clearly in a world of fake news and bad data. “A modern classic . . . a straight-talking survival guide to the mean streets of a dying democracy and a global pandemic.”—Wired Misinformation, disinformation, and fake news abound and it’s increasingly difficult to know what’s true. Our media environment has become hyperpartisan. Science is conducted by press release. Startup culture elevates bullshit to high art. We are fairly well equipped to spot the sort of old-school bullshit that is based in fancy rhetoric and weasel words, but most of us don’t feel qualified to challenge the avalanche of new-school bullshit presented in the language of math, science, or statistics. In Calling Bullshit, Professors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West give us a set of powerful tools to cut through the most intimidating data. You don’t need a lot of technical expertise to call out problems with data. Are the numbers or results too good or too dramatic to be true? Is the claim comparing like with like? Is it confirming your personal bias? Drawing on a deep well of expertise in statistics and computational biology, Bergstrom and West exuberantly unpack examples of selection bias and muddled data visualization, distinguish between correlation and causation, and examine the susceptibility of science to modern bullshit. We have always needed people who call bullshit when necessary, whether within a circle of friends, a community of scholars, or the citizenry of a nation. Now that bullshit has evolved, we need to relearn the art of skepticism.
