Rachel A. Gordon - Applied Statistics for the Social and Health Sciences

APPLIED STATISTICS
FOR THE SOCIAL AND
HEALTH SCIENCES

Rachel A. Gordon

University of Illinois at Chicago

First published 2012

by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Simultaneously published in the UK

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2012 Taylor & Francis

The right of Rachel Gordon to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Gordon, Rachel A.

Applied statistics for the social and health sciences/Rachel A. Gordon.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Social sciencesStatistical methods. 2. Public healthStatistical methods. I. Title.

HA29.G685 2011

List of Trademarks that feature in the text

ISBN: 9780415875363 (hbk)

ISBN: 9780203135297 (ebk)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS IN BRIEF

APPLIED STATISTICS FOR THE SOCIAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES

TABLE OF CONTENTS IN DETAIL

APPLIED STATISTICS FOR THE SOCIAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES

PREFACE

This text is intended for year-long graduate statistics sequences in masters and doctoral programs in the social and health sciences.

We cover basic descriptive and inferential statistics, ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models for continuous outcomes, and the generalized linear model and maximum likelihood estimation for dichotomous outcomes and for multi-category nominal and ordinal outcomes.

Applied Statistics for the Social and Health Sciences shares several goals and strategies with the text Regression Analysis for the Social Sciences, the latter of which is intended for a semester-long course on ordinary least squares regression. In addition to coverage of additional topics, Applied Statistics for the Social and Health Sciences also has some unique features, outlined below.

Both books aim to fill a gap in the textbook market. Although statistics textbooks abound, relatively few aim specifically at basic graduate sequences in the social and health sciences. We target the social and health science branches such as education, human development, psychology, public health, social work, and sociology, to which students bring a wide range of mathematical skills and have a wide range of methodological affinities. For some of these students, a successful basic statistics sequence will not only offer statistical content but will also help them to overcome their anxiety about statistics and to develop an appreciation for how quantitative techniques might answer some of the research questions of interest to them. Other students are eager to gain a strong foundation in statistical theory and statistical analysis so they can take advanced courses, secure research assistantships, and begin their own quantitative projects.

To meet these objectives, both of our textbooks have three distinctive features:

1. Use of examples of interest to social scientists including both:
   1. Literature excerpts, drawn from a range of journals and a range of subfields;
   2. Examples from real data sets, including two data sets carried throughout the book;
2. Thorough integration of teaching statistical theory with teaching data processing and analysis;
3. Parallel teaching of SAS and Stata.