Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences

The book presents an introduction to statistical methods for students majoring in social science disciplines. No previous knowledge of statistics is assumed, and mathematical background is assumed to be minimal (lowest-level high-school algebra). The book contains sufficient material for a two-semester sequence of courses. Such sequences are commonly required of social science graduate students in sociology, political science, and psychology. Students in geography, anthropology, journalism, and speech also are sometimes required to take at least one statistics course.

Alan Agresti is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Florida. He has been teaching statistics there for 30 years, including the development of three courses in statistical methods for social science students and three courses in categorical data analysis. He is author of over 100 refereed article and four texts including "Statistics: The Art and Science of Learning From Data" (with Christine Franklin, Prentice Hall, 2nd edition 2009) and "Categorical Data Analysis" (Wiley, 2nd edition 2002). He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Science from De Montfort University in the UK. In 2003 he was named "Statistician of the Year" by the Chicago chapter of the American Statistical Association and in 2004 he was the first honoree of the Herman Callaert Leadership Award in Biostatistical Education and Dissemination awarded by the University of Limburgs, Belgium. He has held visiting positions at Harvard University, Boston University, London School of Economics, and Imperial College and has taught courses or short courses for universities and companies in about 20 countries worldwide. He has also received teaching awards from UF and an excellence in writing award from John Wiley & Sons.