Quantitative Psychological Research

Book excerpt: Quantitative Psychological Research: The Complete Student's Companion expertly guides the reader through all the stages involved in undertaking quantitative psychological research: designing a study, choosing a sample of people, undertaking the study, analysing the data, and reporting the research. Accessibly written and clearly presented, the book is designed for anyone learning to conduct quantitative psychological research. It covers the full research process, from the original idea to reporting the completed study, emphasising the importance of looking beyond statistical significance in evaluating data. The book provides step-by-step guidance on choosing, interpreting and reporting the appropriate analysis, featuring worked examples and extended calculations as appendices for advanced readers. This edition features new chapters on exploratory factor analysis, logistic regression and Bayesian statistics, and has been thoroughly updated throughout to reflect the latest research practices. Care has been taken to avoid tying the book to any specific statistical software, providing readers with a thorough grounding in the basics no matter which package they go on to use. Whether you’re at the beginning of your undergraduate degree or working towards your masters or doctorate, this book will be invaluable for anyone looking to understand how to conduct quantitative psychological research.