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Recommended Reading
“Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences”
by
Sidney Siegel and N John Castellan
Second Edition, Pub: McGraw Hill 1988 Pp399
ISBN: 0-07-057357-3
To gain a wider and deeper understanding of their subject, students need to read books other than those recommended by their Examining Board or set by their School. It's possible that the distinction between “Parametric” and “Nonparametric” is unknown to students at A-level; I have even met postgraduate students of statistics who were unsure of this. This book by Siegel and Castellan is a classic: the first edition was published in 1956, and the second edition is an invaluable resource for statisticians at any level: it has clear, intelligent discussions not only of principles but also of techniques.
Chapters 1, 2 and 3 are an introduction to the ideas and methods of statistical inference. As an example, I expect we all agree that somehow a larger sample gives us a better test than a smaller one, without knowing for certain what we mean by “better”. In these three short chapters we find discussions and explanations of the roles played by sample size, hypotheses, significance levels, types of errors, sampling distributions, the central limit theorem and the power of a test, not to mention the assumptions you make when employing a statistical test. In chapter 3 there is a comprehensive section on measurement which can be read with profit by anyone wishing to know about Science, and then there is a section comparing Parametric and Nonparametric tests.
The second part of the book can be used as a reference for particular techniques. Here are the Binomial Test, the Chi-Square Goodness-of-Fit Test, the Wilcoxon Test and the splendidly-named Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test. Here also are the Median Test, the Runs Test for Randomness, three Correlation Coefficients and the Kruskal-Wallis One-Way Analysis of Variance by Ranks, and many others.
Finally, in the end cover is a table directing you to the test most appropriate to your needs, based on level of measurement, number of samples and measures of association.
I went to Amazon to check the price of this book and found a used first edition which I remember having as an undergraduate – price £10
But when I searched for the second edition I found a picture of my book, and the price – over £100!
So, if you are a student in school or college, ask your library to get this book for the reference section, but perhaps you should not mention the price!
