Statistical Reasoning for Everyday Life

Buy Direct Buy on AmazonThis book is intended for use in the statistical literacy course or an introductory statistics course that emphasizes concepts over computation. The goal is to give students a conceptual understanding of statistics and develop their statistical reasoning skills. This text approaches statistics by presenting an overall picture and then providing explanation of the topics in context. Students develop an understanding of statistics that is reinforced in the exercises and web projects, and by doing some computation.

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Table of Contents

1. Speaking of Statistics
   1.1 What Is/Are Statistics?
   1.2 Sampling
   1.3 Types of Statistical Study
   1.4 Should You Believe a Statistical Study?
   Focus on Psychology: Are You Driving “Drunk” on Your Cell Phone?
   Focus on Public Health: Is Your Lifestyle Healthy?
2. Measurement In Statistics
   2.1 Data Types and Levels of Measurement
   2.2 Dealing with Errors
   2.3 Uses of Percentages in Statistics
   2.4 Index Numbers
   Focus on Politics: Who Benefited Most From Lower Tax Rates?
   Focus on Economics: Can a Redefined CPI Help Solve the Budget Crisis?
3. Visual Displays of Data
   3.1 Frequency Tables
   3.2 Picturing Distributions of Data
   3.3 Graphics in the Media
   3.4 A Few Cautions About Graphics
   Focus on History: Can War Be Described with a Graph?
   Focus on Environment: How Can We Visualize Global Warming?
4. Describing Data
   4.1 What is Average?
   4.2 Shapes of Distributions
   4.3 Measures of Variation
   4.4 Statistical Paradoxes
   Focus on the Stock Market: What’s Average About the Dow?
   Focus on Economics: Are We Changing Earth’s Atmosphere?
5. A Normal World
   5.1 What is Normal?
   5.2 Properties of the Normal Distribution
   5.3 The Central Limit Theorem
   Focus on Education: What Can We Learn from SAT Trends?
   Focus on Psychology: Are We Smarter Than Our Parents?
6. Probability in Statistics
   6.1 The Role of Probability in Statistics: Statistical Significance
   6.2 Basics of Probability
   6.3 Probabilities with Large Numbers
   6.4 Ideas of Risk and Life Expectancy
   6.5 Combining Probabilities
   Focus on Social Science: Do Lotteries Harm the Poor?
   Focus on Law: Is DNA Fingerprinting Reliable?
7. Correlation and Causality
   7.1 Seeking Correlation
   7.2 Interpreting Correlations
   7.3 Best-Fit Lines and Prediction
   7.4 The Search for Causality
   Focus on Education: What Helps Children Read?
   Focus on Environment: What is Causing Global Warming?
8. From Samples to Populations
   8.1 Sampling Distributions
   8.2 Estimating Population Means
   8.3 Estimating Population Proportions
   Focus on History: Where Did Statistics Begin?
   Focus on Literature: How Many Words Did Shakespeare Know?
9. Hypothesis Testing
   9.1 Fundamentals of Hypothesis Testing
   9.2 Hypothesis Tests for Population Means
   9.3 Hypothesis Tests for Population Proportions
   Focus on Health and Education: Will Your Education Help You Live Longer?
   Focus on Agriculture: Are Genetically Modified Foods Safe?
10. Tests, Two-Way Tables, and ANOVA
    10.1 Distribution for Inferences about a Mean
    10.2 Hypothesis Testing with Two-Way tables
    10.3 Analysis of Variance (One-Way ANOVA)
    Focus on Criminology: Can You Tell a Fraud When You See One?
    Focus on Education: What Can a Fourth-Grader Do with Statistics?