Introduction to Statistics in Clinical Psychology (Printed, Delivery to Address)

Page: 220

Research findings should reflect statistical rigor. Ethical standards in psychology include comprehensive and honest publication of statistical techniques and results, allowing peers to assess, duplicate, and expand on previous research.
Statistical approaches used in psychology research are roughly classified into descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics provide first insights into the dataset and serve as a foundation for inferential testing. The mean, median, mode, range, variance, and standard deviation are key measurements that summarize and emphasize the data's basic properties and distribution patterns. The nature of the data and the study's unique context determine which measurements are used.
In contrast, inferential statistics are essential for testing hypotheses and generalizing results. Hypothesis testing entails developing null and alternative hypotheses, selecting suitable statistical tests (e.g., t-tests, ANOVA), and comparing the findings to predetermined significance thresholds (usually alpha = 0.05). Such approaches enable psychologists to determine whether reported effects are consistently assigned to experimental manipulations or are simply the consequence of random fluctuation.