East Carolina University
Department of Psychology

Karl Wuensch's Statistics Lessons

Years ago I converted all of my hand-written lecture notes into Word documents. Then I started putting them online so that students could access them if they missed class. Here is a collection of them from my statistics classes. I do not know how many people outside of East Carolina University are using them to educate themselves, but I get a good number of emails that indicate that there are quite a few who do.

Introduction and Descriptive Statistics

Choosing an Appropriate Bivariate Inferential Statistic -- This document will help you learn when to use the various inferential statistics that are typically covered in an introductory statistics course.
PSYC 2101: Howell Chapters 1 & 2 -- Elementary material covered in the first two chapters of Howell's Fundamentals text.
Scales of Measurement -- This document covers the topic of Scales of Measurement.
Descriptive Statistics -- This document covers Basic Descriptive Statistics.
The Three Quarter Rule -- This document illustrates how the graph can be used to either minimize or exaggerate your perception of differences.
Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) -- This document covers Exploratory Data Analysis.
Skewness, Kurtosis, and the Normal Curve -- Platykurtic curves are short in the tails like platypuses; leptokurtic curves are heavy in the tails like kangaroos, noted for 'lepping.'
The Normal Distribution -- This document introduces the normal probability density function.
Describing the Shapes of Frequency Distributions -- advice for the novice
An Introduction to Research Design

Basics of Parametric Inference

Making Inferences About Parameters -- An introduction to parametric inferential statistics.
An Introduction to Power Analysis, N = 1 -- See how to calculate power, using the normal curve, and how various factors affect power.
Basic Probability -- An introduction to the most basic concepts in probability theory and working with contingency tables.

The Binomial and Chi-Square Distributions

Testing Hypotheses with the Binomial Probability Distribution -- An introduction to the binomial distribution, including using it to test hypotheses about the binomial parameter p.
Confidence Intervals for Proportions
Comparing Correlated Proportions -- McNemar's Test
The Statistics of Democracy -- an interesting application of the binomial distribution
Common Univariate and Bivariate Applications of the Chi-square Distribution -- one sample variance, one-way chi-square, two-way chi-square.
Odds Ratios and the Wald Chi-square -- you can get a CI that includes one when the Pearson or LR Chi-square is significant
Reporting the Strength of Effect Estimates for Simple Statistical Analyses -- Independent t, one-way independent ANOVA, correlation/regression, contingency table analysis.

Student's T

One Mean Inference -- Testing hypotheses about a single population mean, constructing confidence intervals, effect size estimation, and writing APA-style summary statements.
Two Mean Inference -- Testing hypotheses about the difference between two population means (independent or correlated) or variances, constructing confidence intervals, effect size estimation, and writing APA-style summary statements.
Two Groups and One Continuous Variable -- An overview of methods that may be used when one variable in continuous and the other is dichotomous
Measurement Scales and Psychological Statistics: Empirical Science or Metaphysics?
CL: The Common Language Effect Size Statistic -- this may help you better understand effect size estimates such as the d statistic.
Reporting the Strength of Effect Estimates for Simple Statistical Analyses -- Independent t, one-way independent ANOVA, correlation/regression, contingency table analysis.
Confidence Intervals, Pooled and Separate Variances T - unstandardized and standardized confidence intervals for difference in means.