{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.044614691302388466, 'fraction_numerical': 0.028391167192429023, 'mean_word_length': 5.218487394957983, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Book review of A Primer of Multivariate Statistics (3rd ed.), by Richard J. Harris

As pointed out in a recent review (Glaser, 1999), there are quite a few multivariate texts in the marketplace, each with their own emphasis, whether more laden toward the mathematics of multivariate statistics (e.g., Johnson & Wichern, 1999) or those with a decidedly nontechnical orientation (Grimm & Yarnold, 1995, 2000; Tacq, 1997). Coincidentally, the past couple of years have seen updated editions of such frequently used (at least in the social sciences) multivariate texts as Stevens (2002), Johnson and Wichern (1999), and Tabachhick and Fidell (2001). To add to this, Harris has a new edition, his first update since the 1985 second edition. Chapter 1, titled “The Forest Before the Trees,” provides an overview of the use of multivariate statistics and touches on some of the recent developments in analysis, including the ongoing (if somewhat waning) discussion of null hypothesis significance testing (NHST). An intriguing opening statement jumpstarts this chapter: “Statistics is a form of social control over the professional behavior of researchers” (p. 1). Thus, to some extent this text is not light on editorializing by the author. Some of the recent discussion on NHST, prompted in part by Cohen’s (1994) article and then summarized in the edited text by Harlow, Mulaik, and Steiger (1997), is briefly summarized. Some recent developments in univariate statistics are reviewed, including power analysis, use of confidence intervals, and so forth. The descriptive and inferential roles that multivariate statistics plays is discussed with an extended section titled “A heuristic survey of statistical techniques.” By heuristic, the author means that the formula is presented in a way that suggests the underlying meaning of the calculation. Many introductory texts refer to this as the definitional formula (e.g., Heiman, 1998) as opposed to the more calculation-friendly computational formula. Thus, a brief discussion, in a heuristic context, is provided for the various univariate statistics known to most researchers STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING, 9(3), 448–457 Copyright © 2002, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.