The Philosophy of Quantitative Methods undertakes a philosophical examination of a number of important quantitative research methods within the behavioral sciences in order to overcome the non-critical approaches typically provided by textbooks. These research methods are exploratory data analysis, statistical significance testing, Bayesian confirmation theory and statistics, meta-analysis, and exploratory factor analysis. Further readings are provided toextend the reader's overall understanding of these methods.

Brian D. Haig is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Canterbury. He has published extensively on the conceptual foundations of behavioral research methods. He is the author of Investigating the Psychological World (MIT Press, 2014) and, with Colin W. Evers, Realist Inquiry in Social Science (Sage, 2016). He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the New Zealand Psychological Society.

• Chapter 1: Introduction


• Chapter 2: Exploratory Data Analysis


• Chapter 3: Tests of Statistical Significance


• Chapter 4: Bayesianism


• Chapter 5: Meta-Analysis


• Chapter 6: Exploratory Factor Analysis


• Chapter 7: Conclusions