The essence of multivariate thinking: Basic themes and methods

The current volume was written with a simple goal: to make the topic of multivariate statistics more accessible and comprehensible to a wide audience. To encourage a more encompassing cognizance of the nature of multivariate methods, I suggest basic themes that run through most statistical methodology. I then show how these themes are applied to several multivariate methods that could be covered in a statistics course for first-year graduate students or advanced undergraduates. I hope awareness of these common themes will engender more ease in understanding the basic concepts integral to multivariate thinking. In keeping with a conceptual focus, I kept formulas at a minimum so that the book does not require knowledge of advanced mathematical methods beyond basic algebra and finite mathematics. There are a number of excellent statistical works that present greater mathematical and statistical details than the current volume or present other approaches to multivariate methods. When possible I suggest references to some of these sources for those individuals who are interested. © 2005 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. All rights reserved