Statistical Training in Psychology: A National Survey and Commentary on Undergraduate Programs

We surveyed a national sample of U.S. undergraduate psychology programs regarding the structure and content of statistical training. Results revealed considerable diversity in approaches and offerings. Contemporary trends in data analysis (e.g., power and effect size analysis, confidence interval estimation, general linear model approaches) as well as measurement issues appear to receive relatively little attention in the core sequence. Respondents tended to view such topics as appropriate for more advanced courses, which they said were infrequently required. We discuss options for addressing issues of course sequencing, content focus, and advanced-level offerings in the major.

[1]  S. Meier Revitalizing the measurement curriculum: Four approaches for emphasis in graduate education. , 1993 .

[2]  Gordon Bear,et al.  Computationally intensive methods warrant reconsideration of pedagogy in statistics , 1995 .

[3]  G. Kimble,et al.  Liberal Education, Study in Depth, and the Arts and Sciences Major--Psychology. , 1991 .

[4]  Howard Wainer,et al.  One cheer for null hypothesis significance testing. , 1999 .

[5]  Alan E. Kazdin,et al.  Graduate Training in Statistics, Methodology, and Measurement in Psychology: A Survey of PhD Programs in North America , 1990 .

[6]  Roger Sauter,et al.  Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis , 2002, Technometrics.

[7]  Richard J. Harris Significance Tests Have Their Place , 1997 .

[8]  James Friedrich Learning to View Psychology as a Science: Self-Persuasion through Writing , 1990 .

[9]  Rand R. Wilcox,et al.  How many discoveries have been lost by ignoring modern statistical methods , 1998 .

[10]  Jacob Cohen The earth is round (p < .05) , 1994 .

[11]  J. Clough Which Knowledge and Skills Should Psychology Graduates Have? Balancing the Needs of the Individual, Employers, the Science and the Profession , 1993 .

[12]  Thomas E. Bradstreet,et al.  Teaching Introductory Statistics Courses So That Nonstatisticians Experience Statistical Reasoning , 1996 .

[13]  Robert S. Lockhart,et al.  Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis For the Behavioral Sciences , 1997 .

[14]  B. Perlman,et al.  The Most Frequently Listed Courses in the Undergraduate Psychology Curriculum , 1999 .

[15]  Thomas V. McGovern Handbook for Enhancing Undergraduate Education in Psychology , 1993 .

[16]  Sherri L. Jackson,et al.  A National Survey of Undergraduate Psychology Degree Options and Major Requirements , 1999 .

[17]  Elaine N. Aron,et al.  Statistics for psychology, 2nd ed. , 1999 .

[18]  Robert Rosenthal,et al.  Beginning behavioral research: A conceptual primer, 2nd ed. , 1996 .

[19]  John T. Behrens,et al.  Principles and procedures of exploratory data analysis. , 1997 .

[20]  Mark E. Ware,et al.  Computer-Assisted Statistical Analysis: A Teaching Innovation? , 1989 .

[21]  Lee I. McCann,et al.  The Structure of the Psychology Undergraduate Curriculum , 1999 .

[22]  N. Lambert The Crisis in Measurement Literacy in Psychology and Education , 1991 .

[23]  Robert L. Mccaul,et al.  Curriculum , 1956 .

[24]  Robert Rosenthal,et al.  Contemporary Issues in the Analysis of Data: A Survey of 551 Psychologists , 1993 .

[25]  Amy M. Buddie,et al.  Twenty Years of PSPB: Trends in Content, Design, and Analysis , 1999 .

[26]  G. Loftus Psychology Will Be a Much Better Science When We Change the Way We Analyze Data , 1996 .

[27]  D. Douglass,et al.  Ethics and the Persuasive Enterprise of Teaching Psychology. , 1998 .

[28]  Jill L. Quilici,et al.  Role of examples in how students learn to categorize statistics word problems. , 1996 .

[29]  R. Frick,et al.  Interpreting statistical testing: Process and propensity, not population and random sampling , 1998 .

[30]  Bernard C. Beins Writing Assignments in Statistics Classes Encourage Students to Learn Interpretation , 1993 .

[31]  M. Ware,et al.  Developing Selection Skills in Introductory Statistics , 1991 .

[32]  Leland Wilkinson,et al.  Statistical Methods in Psychology Journals Guidelines and Explanations , 2005 .

[33]  Ralph L. Rosnow,et al.  Essentials of Behavioral Research: Methods and Data Analysis , 1984 .

[34]  Scott E. Maxwell,et al.  Research productivity in psychology based on publication in the journals of the American Psychological Association. , 1987 .

[35]  Kathleen M. Dillon I Am 95% Confident That the Earth is Round: An Interview about Statistics with Chris Spatz , 1999 .

[36]  Jacob Cohen,et al.  A power primer. , 1992, Psychological bulletin.

[37]  Robert Rosenthal,et al.  Beginning Behavioral Research: A Conceptual Primer , 1993 .

[38]  C. Judd,et al.  Data analysis: continuing issues in the everyday analysis of psychological data. , 1995, Annual review of psychology.