Reading and Understanding Multivariate Statistics

Rating:
Summary: I read it - and I understood it!
Review: "Reading and Understanding Multivariate Statistics" achieves exactly what its title implies. Geared toward non-statisticians in behavioral and social science fields, this book provides clear and reasonably simple explanations of some of the most common multivariate analyses. Each chapter focuses on a different analysis and presents its conceptual underpinnings, underlying assumptions, and basic procedures with a minimum of equations and many concrete examples. It does not teach you how to perform the analyses but does provide references for those who wish to get more detailed information. As a research scientist who doesn't always remember everything I learned in graduate statistics class, I find this book an invaluable aid keeping up with the current literature in my field and in making the most of statistical consultations. This book is ideal for anyone whose job requires them to be a "consumer" of research; for researchers who wish to further their understanding of data analysis; and as a companion text for graduate statistics classes.

Rating:
Summary: I read it - and I understood it!
Review: "Reading and Understanding Multivariate Statistics" achieves exactly what its title implies. Geared toward non-statisticians in behavioral and social science fields, this book provides clear and reasonably simple explanations of some of the most common multivariate analyses. Each chapter focuses on a different analysis and presents its conceptual underpinnings, underlying assumptions, and basic procedures with a minimum of equations and many concrete examples. It does not teach you how to perform the analyses but does provide references for those who wish to get more detailed information. As a research scientist who doesn't always remember everything I learned in graduate statistics class, I find this book an invaluable aid keeping up with the current literature in my field and in making the most of statistical consultations. This book is ideal for anyone whose job requires them to be a "consumer" of research; for researchers who wish to further their understanding of data analysis; and as a companion text for graduate statistics classes.

Rating:
Summary: Complex made simple
Review: As someone who has tried to teach multivariate statistics to non-statistician graduate students for the past 5 years, I have found this to be a very valuable and clearly-written text. As advertised and as the previous reviewer noted, the text is largely free of complex statistical equations and instead has clear descriptions of each type of test as well as common applications of that test. It is a perfect introduction for students who are intimidated by numbers and equations yet need to know about multivariate statistics for their graduate studies.

The book has several weaknesses that I found require supplementing with other texts. For one, there is no tie-in with major computerized statistical applications like SPSS and SAS nor are there example exercises for students to run and interpret statistical tests for themselves. I have found such exercises to be invaluable in teaching the meaning and uses of multivariate tests. There also should have been a discussion of general issues that cut across the different multivariate tests such as data cleaning, data transformation, the role of correlation matrices and the like and so on. For coverage of these issues, I have found it helpful to use chapters from Tabachnik and Fidel's Using Multivariate Statistics text. Finally, a number of tests, such as survival analysis are not covered in this text, though a second volume by the same authors does cover survival analysis as well as other techniques and should be considered as a companion volume as well.

In sum, this is an excellent and unusually clearly written text that is ideal for non-statistician graduate students in the social sciences. More in-depth analysis of important issues related to multivariate statistics and classroom exercises using statistical computer applications requires augmenting this text with additional readings.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Treatment of Sophisticated Mathemeatical Concepts
Review: I've long wanted a better explanation of Eigenvectors and Eigenvalues than I recieved in a econometrics or statistics textbook. This book gives me an incredibly clear understanding of what they are. Now when I look back at the mathematical interpretation again it means so much more. This is a fantastic book that would highly recommend to anyone wanting a clear conceptual understanding of these sophisticated topics. 5 stars, no questions about it!

Rating:
Summary: Great Resource for Statistics
Review: In many introductory statistics courses you usually do not cover multivariate statistics. This book and its companion volume are useful for anyone in upper level undergraduate or graduate programs. It is a great reference to have when planning research.

You can read it all at once to get a general understanding of this area or you can look at it as you need it as a reference. It's a great resource overall!

Rating:
Summary: Complex made simple
Review: The authors provide clear and sufficient explanation for the most common multivariate statistical techniques. Well written and easy to follow.