A primer of multivariate statistics

the long version

The purpose of this text is to provide an introduction to the more common multivariate techniques for students interested in research in sociology, psychology, anthropology, and other social and behavioural sciences who have had at least one introductory course in statistics. Several excellent comprehensive textbooks on multivariate statistical techniques were already available when preparation of the Primer was first considered. But the author's experience-as instructor of a course in multivariate statistics-has been that none of these otherwise excellent texts could be understood by mathematically unsophisticated students, despite the surprising simplicity of the basic goals of and the approaches taken to achieve these goals in multivariate statistics.