scope:

PREFACE

This book is best suited for professionals, teachers, and post-graduate students in the fields of psychiatry and allied mental health such as psychiatric social work, psychiatric nursing, psychiatric epidemiology, psychiatric statistics, mental health education, and clinical psychology. Keeping a watchful eye on the perfection of knowledge of these methods, this book has been prepared with a view to fill gaps in their applications and to introduce suitable data analysis software. The main objectives of writing this book include classification of fundamental statistical methods in psychiatry research, introduction to multivariate data analysis, and data analysis software presented in a precise and simple manner.

Hierarchical classification of the contents: The sequence of the 22 chapters, the sections within the chapters, the subsections within the sections, and the points listed under these subsections have been so arranged to help the professionals in classification of their knowledge in statistical methods (see Appendix II) and fill the gaps. The reader can make a glossary by referring to the meanings and definitions of the various terms given in the appendix to the main text of the book. This appendix can also provide an index.

Precise: My intension is to provide an overview of statistical methods, but the works that I have found most useful are included in the bibliography. This feature of the book helps the reader, who merely requires having his memory refreshed, in preparing a summary of statistical formula from the text of the book.

Simplicity: The fundamental statistical methods are demonstrated by means of arithmetical examples that may be reworked with pencil and paper in a matter of minutes. Most of these examples use artificial data: real data are usually more difficult to work with and can easily obscure the point being made. Care has been taken to avoid using terminology that is likely to cause difficulty to the reader.

Data analysis software: The results of the rework by the reader have to be checked by using SPSS; and in this way, the psychiatrist friendly data analysis software (SPSS) is introduced.