Agresti and Finley present statistical methods in a style that emphasizes their concepts and their application to the social sciences rather than the mathematics and computational details behind them. "Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences, 4e "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). This text may be used in a one or two course sequence. 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.
This is the best introductory stats book that I have read. Clear with many examples to make sure that you understand every step and the purpose behind each statistical test. An excellent text.
I rate this one star not because the information is bad or it's a bad textbook. It got 1 star because I hate statistics with a purple and blue passion, and I cannot separate this from my rating. Sorry. But if you have to learn doctoral level social science stats, this isn't a bad choice.
Naturally, I read this for a class. I didn't fully finish, left off 2-3 chapters in the end. The way this book is written makes some of the concepts a bit challenging to grasp. I found myself frequently asking "who writes sentences like that?". However, the diagrams, organization(kind of), and pullout boxes of key concepts are really helpful, and the book is, of course, thorough and packed full of useful information.
This book is much more detailed and focused extensively on advanced statistical methods compared to the other books with similar topics written by the same author. Highly recommend it to the beginning researchers.