Psychological statistics vs. Statistics

HonnyBrown · Jul 15, 2011

I also have a choice in the two. I hope you get some replies because I am pretty interested to know as well.

THELIVINGWORST, ASN, RN · Jul 15, 2011

Psychological stats and regular stats are basically the same...psych stats is just under the scope of psychology. Examples have to do with reading and interpreting data from experiments in the field of psychology. It was pretty easy for me...and this a person who JUST got their first A in math! I passed with an A pretty easily and even got a certificate of excellence from the American Psychological Association.

Piper17 · Jul 15, 2011

I took social statistics in a sociology course and it was CAKE. but, that was thanks to the teacher. I'm glad I took that instead of regular statistics.

freyes · Jul 16, 2011

i took regular stats and probabilities kicked my butt.. i barely got a C.

llg, PhD, RN · Jul 16, 2011

In many (most?) universities, different disciplines offer statistics classes that are tailored to the needs of students in that major. For example, a psych stats course would emphasize the statistics used most often in psychology ... a nursing stats course would emplhasize the stats seen most often in nursing research ... a math stats course might emphasize the mathematics that underlie the statistics themselves ... etc. Also, the examples used in class discussion will probably involve topics of interest to people in that discipline (e.g. psychology vs. sociology vs. nursing, etc.)

Any of those courses could be "hard" or "easy" depending on how they are taught, the quality of the professor, the level of achievement expected of the students, etc. That will vary from school to school, semester to semester. One course is not necessarily better than another universally across different schools and times. If a really tough professor teaches a course, it might be a lot harder than the same course taught another semester by a really easy-going professor who is good at explaining things -- regardless of the academic department that is offering the course.

My advice is to talk with upperclassmen at your school, a faculty advisor, etc. and find out which course is usually taken and/or preferred by the nursing students at your school.

Cherry02 · Jul 30, 2011

Like others said, psych statistics will focus on statistics relating to the field of psychology. The difficulty of psych stats vs. general stats probably depends on the school/professor/class level.

I took a basic stats class (gen. ed. requirement) about 7 years ago, and it was ridiculously easy. But, it was a lower level class.

I also had to take a behavioral sciences stats class (for sociology, psych, human development, etc. concentrations). That was definitely harder, relative to the other statistics class. Relative to the biology lab sciences, it was a piece of cake. :)