This acclaimed statistics text requires no prior knowledge of statistics, emphasizing a conceptual understanding of the topic and its usefulness to social work practice and research. Rather than focusing on mathematical computation, Statistics for Social Workers instead focuses on providing an understanding of the logical underpinnings of statistical analysis and how to apply the results of analysis in a social work practice environment. The authors have used this a… More >>
This book was in excellent condition,I did not use it much for the class but was happy that it was exactly as described.
Rating: 5 / 5
Book arrived within time frame, and was exactly as described. Would use this seller again, and recommends them to others.
Rating: 5 / 5
You DO NOT need to buy the current edition. My sixth edition worked just fine, and cost $75 less.
Rating: 1 / 5
We used this book in conjunction with the SPSS manual and software. Even though this book did disappoint at times (what text book doesn’t really) it did prove useful as a reference book and supplemented the SPSS manual nicely.
Rating: 4 / 5
I have a PhD. in Social Work, and can positively say this book was no help to anyone in my class. The words couldn’t be muddier and the paragraphs clunkier. It has the feel of a paper revised so much that it’s lost any meaning, as though the author sat with an open thesaurus and exchanged what might have been a fine word for some other word, at every third word. It reads like an eighth grader found a thesaurus and strung sentences together hoping to gain some recognition, or hastily jotted lecture notes at the moment, or a vaguely intelligible and dull alien script.
It is a shame that bright students might be introduced to the subject by this book, and they, if weren’t bright, would think they couldn’t understand the subject, when in fact the blame falls on the shoulders of the authors. If the authors had decided to write such a book, why make it such a tangled mess?
As you read the text, an important term, such as “Operationalization,” changes its meaning according to the authors’ whims, so the student is left nonplussed as to what the word means. When the students looks in the glossary, he finds “Conceptualization,” which, like “Operationalization,” is given several paragraphs to define; however, one, and not the other, can be found in the glossary.
The authors wrote, “Specifying…is the process called Operationalization.” Then, later, wrote, “…specifying how we will operationalize…” which of course translates to specifying.
My students resigned themselves to looking up the terms on Wikipedia for a clearer explanation.
Rating: 1 / 5