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Compassionate Statistics
Applied Quantitative Analysis for Social Services (With exercises and instructions in SPSS)



July 2007 | 336 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
Compassionate Statistics: Applied Quantitative Analysis for Social Services (With Instructions for SPSS 14.0) is an attempt to "de-mythologize" a content area that is both essential for professional social service practitioners, yet dreaded by some of the most experienced among them. Using friendly, straightforward language as well as concrete illustrations and exercises from social service practice, author Vincent E. Faherty catapults students and experienced professionals to a pragmatic level where they can handle quantitative analysis for all their research and evaluation needs.

Key Features
  • Provides comprehensive coverage of the most important aspects of quantitative analysis: This is a complete, yet pragmatic, resource for social service professionals to use standard descriptive and inferential statistical techniques.
  • Offers an accessible format: Using unpretentious and plain language, this book introduces essential statistical procedures, one-at-a-time, in relatively short chapters in order to assist recall and facilitate new learning.
  • Applies statistical content to social service practice situations: Concrete applications are drawn from counseling, criminal justice, human services, social work, therapeutic recreation and vocational rehabilitation.
  • Presents case illustrations of how statistical material is reported in professional literature: Since social service professionals need to write up the results of their quantitative analysis, this book provides actual illustrations of how the various statistical procedures and tests are presented in published articles.
  • Addresses the use of SPSS on each covered statistical procedure and test: Specific directions are given so students can use the latest version of SPSS to complete each assigned exercise.
  • Includes in-chapter exercises: A series of realistic data sets that students can use to perform a number of planned exercises are offered in each chapter.
Intended Audience
This is an excellent core or supplemental text for a variety of advanced undergraduate and graduate courses such as Statistics for Social Services, Applied Statistics, Quantitative Analysis for Social Services, Statistics for Social Work, Social Science Research, Research Methods, Program Evaluation, and Grant Writing in the departments of counseling, human services, social services, social work, therapeutic recreation, and vocational rehabilitation.

 
Acknowledgments
 
1. Introduction, Overview, and Nondefinitions
 
2. Levels of Data: Nominal, Ordinal, and Scale
 
3. Presenting Data in Tables
 
4. Presenting Data in Figures
 
5. The 3 Ms: Mean, Median, and Mode
 
6. Standard Deviations, Ranges, and Quartiles
 
7. Other Descriptive Statistics
 
8. Probability and Statistical Significance
 
9. Chi-Square Test of Independence
 
10. Correlation: Scattergrams
 
11. Correlation: Spearman's rho and Pearson's r
 
12. t-Test for Paired Samples
 
13. t-Test for Independent Samples
 
14. One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) With Post Hoc Tests
 
15. Nonparametric Alternatives to Common Parametric Tests
 
Appendix A: Getting Started With SPSS
 
Appendix B: SPSS Data Sets
 
Appendix C: Outline of Common Univariate and Bivariate Statistical Procedures
 
Appendix D: Outline of Common Parametric and Nonparametric Inferential Tests
 
Appendix E: Table of Random Numbers With Instructions
 
Appendix F: Glossary of Terms
 
Index
 
About the Author

This is an accessible book written in down to earth language. It is suitable for beginner students as it explains the basic concepts such as mean and standard deviations alongside examples - which make this a very clear book for students.

Dr Gemma Griffith
School of Psychology, Bangor University
June 23, 2015

easy to understand

Dr Alex Kerwin
Counseling Dept, Idaho State Univ-Pocatello
December 23, 2014

What I needed for class

Dr Stephanie Burns
Graduate Counseling, Heidelberg College - Tiffin
September 6, 2012
Key features
  • Comprehensive, yet pragmatic, resource for social service professionals to use standard descriptive and inferential statistical techniques;
  • Reinforces students' theoretical knowledge about statistics from ongoing (or previous) college/university courses;
  • Introduces essential statistical procedures, one-at-a-time, in relatively short chapters, in order to assist recall and facilitate new learning;
  • Expands the theoretical knowledge base by providing realistic case examples of how statistics are used and could be used to serve their clients/consumers;
  • Increases students' competency to systematically collect, analyze and present quantitative data that are already available in client case files, in agency documents, and/or in other secondary sources;  
  • Includes a series of realistic data sets that students can use to perform a number of planned exercises in each chapter;
  • Provides specific directions so the student can use the latest version of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to complete each assigned exercise;
  • Provides specific directions on  how to "copy and paste" statistical material from SPSS  into MS Powerpoint software for formal presentations; and, finally
  • Offer a practice-relevant manual that is complementary to any standard statistical textbook for the social sciences.  

Sample Materials & Chapters

Datasets


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