Statistical Methods for Psychology
Statistical Methods for Psychology
On multiple occasions, I have taught the introductory statistics for psychology class at Northwestern University. This is a quarter long class rather than a semester long class.
This course is designed to familiarize you with the basic concepts and techniques of descriptive and inferential statistics. Emphasis is placed on understanding and interpreting data as well as on techniques of statistical analysis. A secondary goal of this course is to provide a framework from which to think critically about statistical evidence presented in the media and research reports from journals in psychology. After completing this class, you will be able to summarize data sets using a variety of descriptive statistics, test for relationships between variables, and make group comparisons using inferential statistics. You will also be able to understand scientific notation that you may encounter when reading journal articles in other courses and in your own research.
Some of the material here is not publicly available (e.g., answer keys, exams), but this site also serves as a place for me to keep information organized. Although you're free to click the links and request access to the info, unless you were a T.A. in the class, you're not likely to be given it.
Book
Syllabus
Schedule (with materials corresponding to Fall 2013)
Week 1
Wednesday
Week 2
Monday
Wednesday
Lecture #3 - Introduction to Z scores, finding percentages from scores
Week 3
Monday
Lecture #4 - Finding scores from percentages using Zs, comparing people using z-scores
Wednesday
Lecture #5 - Define sampling distribution, standard error of the mean, central limits theorem
Week 4
Monday
Lecture #6 - Hypothesis testing
Wednesday
Lecture #7 - More on hypothesis testing, power
Week 5
Monday
Lecture #8 - Confidence Intervals (includes some power info Lecture #7)
More practice problems
Wednesday
Lecture #9 - What statistic to use when?, intro to t-test
Week 6
Monday - Class Cancelled
Wednesday
Lecture #10 - Independent sample t-test, review for midterm
Week 7
Monday
Midterm Exam
Test
Z
t and power
Wednesday
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Monday
Wednesday
A syllabus of an earlier semester long version of my undergraduate statistics course using an alternative text is available here.