Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences (3rd Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Great introductory statistics book
Review: Agresti and Finlay did an excellent job with this textbook. It includes most of the important topics generally covered in a two-semester introductory statistics sequence. These authors skillfully use graphs, practical examples, and a diversity of exercises relevant to the social sciences students' experience to illustrate the concepts studied. Summaries at the end of each chapter provide a clear overview of the important points to remember. Readers need no more than a firm high-school math background to understand its contents. This book, in my opinion, is an excellent choice for both undergrad and beginning grad students interested in acquiring a solid foundation on statistical methods.

Rating:
Summary: Statistics book that makes sense
Review: I bought this book in graduate school for my statistics class, and it has continued to help me ever since in my professional career. Unlike many of the statistics books that use complex formulas to explain statistical methods, this book breaks each formula down in an easy to follow format. After explaining the concept, the authors use an example to illustrate the point, which makes things much easier to understand. Also, the Appendix which has SPSS and SAS coding for each of the statistical methods described in the book is a lifesaver!

Rating:
Summary: As a student and a teacher, I've loved it!
Review: I was subjected to an earlier edition when I took statistics as an undergraduate, and I've used the 2nd and 3rd editions as a lecturer and professor, and I believe there is no preferable alternative.

Agresti and Finlay are, above all, clear and accurate. Over the last decade, I've looked at several dozen alternatives, hoping to find one that's strong in the areas where this text is weak. I've been enticed by different layouts, writing styles, even overall motifs, but am always reminded of why I (and others) have relied on this text for so long.

Some alternatives are just sloppy - poor editing, excessive typographic errors, incorrect answers in the answer keys. Some others border on incompetent, confusing basic issues and not clarifying the disputes on border issues. And some, while achieving rapport through comics, comedy, or simply light humor, lose some of the subtle finesse that statistics entails.

Now, this one ain't perfect. The subtleties and disputes are side-stepped rather than highlighted. The text and layout are a bit wordy and eye-hard. And the examples are more practical than pedagogical. The data examples could be a bit sexier.

But the meat is all there, and correct, and clear. And that's what you want in a statistics textbook. You don't need something that pretends stats is inherently fun or exciting. The lecturer should convey the power of p, the coolness of coefficients, and the holy grail of "r-squared". The text book should cover the material accurately and in detail, and this one does.

Rating:
Summary: A truly bad book, at least for non-math people.
Review: I'm an Anthropology major, and thus forced to take statistics. I admit I am not at all mathematically inclined, but so far this book has only made the subject even more obscure and confusing than even I expected. It's simply one of the worst texts I've encountered in my college career.

Despite my own shortcomings when it comes to math (coupled with an ineffective teacher), I managed to get through two quarters of Algebra with B's, thanks to a good textbook with lots of clear, step-by-step examples of how to solve problems. While I may not be comfortable with math, I'm not stupid, and I'm capable of figuring things out when given plenty of clear examples that make sense.

The authors of this book waste as little space and time on examples as they possibly can, then bury them within the text (which is leaden and unreadable), rather than presenting them in a clear, step-by-step fashion. The concepts are defined and introduced, a very short example is often given--and then the text skips on to the next concept. Trying to make sense of how these concepts are actually *used* is an exercise in frustration, and while attempting the problems at the end of each chapter I inevitably find that the text has ill-prepared me to tackle them.

The prof. teaching the course isn't bad, and when sitting in lectures I do understand most of what he is talking about without much effort. But when I'm home in the evenings, working on assignments and need clarification, the text does not provide it. As a result, I've had to go looking for other books that *will* provide what this book does not, in a way that I can understand and use.

I wasted [money] on this book (bought it used), and I hate it with the fury of a thousand white-hot suns. I'm certainly not the only one in the class who does--our pre-midterm study session quickly devolved into a "why-we-hate-the-textbook" rant. If you are assigned this book as a text, consider it only if the exercises in the book are assigned. In that case, buy it, copy the exercises, return the damn thing, and spend your money on other statistics books that actually explain what you're trying to do.