News Release
October 2000
(Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania)—Moravian College professor, Dana Dunn recently authored
a book—Statistics and Data Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences
(McGraw-Hill, 2001)—which was published at the end of August.
Based on Dunn’s 12 years of teaching statistics at Moravian, the
book combines the quantitative aspects of statistics with written explanations
of what the results of statistical tests mean in ways that students
will understand, learn from, and adopt in their studies. Dunn wrote
the book for psychology students, as well as students in sociology,
education, and other social-behavioral science disciplines.
The book’s 15 chapters teach the theory behind statistics
and the analysis of numerical data through a practical, hands-on approach.
The book’s cover design, fonts, and many of the graphics are based
on the American Arts and Crafts style, a feature meant to render the
often-forbidding topic of statistics more accessible. There are 6 Appendices,
one of which gives students a refresher on basic math and algebra, and
discusses ways to overcome math anxiety. Other Appendices introduce
qualitative (non-math based) approaches to research, teach students
how to conduct an independent research project using statistics, and
advise them about writing research papers incorporating statistical
information. By reading the book, students learn the "how to"
side of working with data—how to select an appropriate test, how
to collect data for research, how to perform calculations in a step-by-step
manner, how to be intelligent consumers of statistical information,
and how to write-up and report results in the style used by professional
psychologists and other researchers/educators. To emphasize the real
utility of statistics, chapters open with "decision trees"
regarding using concepts and end with concrete project exercises designed
to illustrate key concepts. Most projects allow students to conduct
research on their own lives to draw personalized meaning from statistics.
The book is supported by a website, as well as ancillary
works designed to help students and faculty use ideas presented in the
text. Dr. Suzanne Mannes, a cognitive psychologist who teaches at the
University of Delaware, wrote a Student Study Guide, an Instructor’s
Manual, and a Test-Bank based on Dunn’s book. Statistics and Data
Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences builds on themes and pedagogical
strategies Dunn developed for his earlier research methods book, The
Practical Researcher: A Student Guide to Conducting Psychological Research
(McGraw-Hill, 1999).
Moravian College is a private, coeducational, selective
liberal arts college located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Tracing its
founding to 1742, it is recognized as America's sixth-oldest college.
Visit the Web site at www.moravian.edu.
