textbook or manual
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Hi,
I've only had a few weeks of SPSS training and have forgotten everything. Could anyone please recommend a SPSS textbook or teaching manual that I could read? Thank you very much! ===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD |
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Andy Field's book, is a good one.
----- Original Message ---- From: SUBSCRIBE SAS-L Anonymous <[hidden email]> To: [hidden email] Sent: Fri, December 4, 2009 2:22:59 PM Subject: textbook or manual Hi, I've only had a few weeks of SPSS training and have forgotten everything. Could anyone please recommend a SPSS textbook or teaching manual that I could read? Thank you very much! ===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD ===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD |
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In reply to this post by SUBSCRIBE SAS-L Anonymous
The SPSS Survival Manual by Julie Pallant is good
-----Original Message----- From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of SUBSCRIBE SAS-L Anonymous Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009 11:23 AM To: [hidden email] Subject: textbook or manual Hi, I've only had a few weeks of SPSS training and have forgotten everything. Could anyone please recommend a SPSS textbook or teaching manual that I could read? Thank you very much! ===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD ===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD |
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In reply to this post by stace swayne
I agree that Field’s book is good… with 2 caveats: 1. I am a 2nd year doctoral student, not a statistician 2. It depends… It depends because your question doesn’t clearly state your purpose. Are you looking for a book you can use to re-learn SPSS? Do you need to re-learn SPSS and statistics? What type of analysis do you want to do with SPSS? Are you looking for a book because you have to teach SPSS? If so, are you teaching undergraduates or graduate students? What areas does the book have to cover? At my level, I am partial to Field’s book, Discovering Statistics Using SPSS, (Sage Publications; 3rd edition is current; about $65 US; about 800+ pages), for general understanding of the statistical analysis and using SPSS to perform the analysis. However, in an effort to make the book entertaining (and it is very entertaining), Field may be a little “loose” with his statistical discussions. That being stated, Field’s book is part of my library. For my (low) level of statistical understanding, Field makes things clear to me. If I had the spare time, I would like to read his book cover-to-cover. This is the only book of the 3 I mention that I could see using as a textbook, per se. If you are a competent statistician and you just want to know how to use SPSS to do the analysis (then you probably shouldn’t be listening to me, but), I recommend SPSS for Intermediate Statistics: Use and Interpretation (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 3rd edition is current; about $35 US; about 250+ pages), by Leech, Barrett, and Morgan. The authors do a good job with their annotated output and, for $35, it makes a great guide. Don’t misinterpret what I wrote to indicate that Leech, et al. don’t do a good job explaining things, though. They do a great job explaining things in a clear concise way. This book will stay a part of my library, too. This could be used as a textbook, but it would require additional theory/explanation. Both of these books cover simple, multiple, and logistic regression, ANOVA, ANCOVA, MANOVA, and hierarchical/multi-level modeling, etc. Note that the second edition of Intermediate Stats does NOT include HLM/MLM and I don’t think the second edition of Discovering Stats does, either. If you are going to teach an undergrad course, I recommend Crash Course in SPSS (Blackwell Publishing; 4th edition is current, about 200+ pages; price ??), by Colman and Pulford as something to get you back up to speed with SPSS. I don’t recommend it as a textbook, though; it’s not really designed as such. This book has the briefest explanations of the 3 and is good as a quick “how-to” reference guide. You will want to find another book as a textbook, though. Of the 3 books, I least recommend this book. It’s good enough to make my list, but I could get by with the 1st two above. Fred All the best,
Fred Weigel
Doctoral Student
College of Business
427 Lowder Business Building
415 West Magnolia Avenue Auburn University Auburn, AL 36849 Phone: 334-844-6538 Fax: 334-844-5159 >>> stace swayne <[hidden email]> 12/4/2009 3:31 PM >>> Andy Field's book, is a good one. ----- Original Message ---- From: SUBSCRIBE SAS-L Anonymous <[hidden email]> To: [hidden email] Sent: Fri, December 4, 2009 2:22:59 PM Subject: textbook or manual Hi, I've only had a few weeks of SPSS training and have forgotten everything. Could anyone please recommend a SPSS textbook or teaching manual that I could read? Thank you very much! ===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD ===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD |
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The UCLA site is a great resource. They’ve
got online classes and tutorials. Lots of great papers. Great starting point in
my opinion. Then of course there’s Levesque’s
Programming and Data Management which ships with SPSS. Also comes with lots of
sample data and syntax to work through. Matthew Pirritano, Ph.D. Research Analyst IV Medical Services Initiative (MSI) Orange County Health Care Agency (714) 568-5648 From: SPSSX(r)
Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On
Behalf Of Fred Weigel I agree that Field’s book is good… with 2 caveats: 1. I
am a 2nd year doctoral student, not a statistician 2. It
depends… It depends because your question doesn’t clearly state your
purpose. Are you looking for a book you can use to re-learn SPSS? Do you need
to re-learn SPSS and statistics? What type of analysis do you want to
do with SPSS? Are you looking for a book because you have to teach SPSS? If
so, are you teaching undergraduates or graduate students? What areas does the
book have to cover? At my level, I am partial to Field’s book, Discovering
Statistics Using SPSS, (Sage Publications; 3rd edition is current; about $65
US; about 800+ pages), for general understanding of the statistical analysis
and using SPSS to perform the analysis. However, in an effort to make the book
entertaining (and it is very entertaining), Field may be a little “loose” with
his statistical discussions. That being stated, Field’s book is part of my library.
For my (low) level of statistical understanding, Field makes things clear to
me. If I had the spare time, I would like to read his book cover-to-cover.
This is the only book of the 3 I mention that I could see using as a textbook,
per se. If you are a competent statistician and you just want to know
how to use SPSS to do the analysis (then you probably shouldn’t be listening to
me, but), I recommend SPSS for Intermediate Statistics: Use and Interpretation
(Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 3rd edition is current; about $35 US;
about 250+ pages), by Leech, Barrett, and Morgan. The authors do a good job
with their annotated output and, for $35, it makes a great guide. Don’t
misinterpret what I wrote to indicate that Leech, et al. don’t do a good job
explaining things, though. They do a great job explaining things in a clear
concise way. This book will stay a part of my library, too. This could be
used as a textbook, but it would require additional theory/explanation. Both of these books cover simple, multiple, and logistic
regression, ANOVA, ANCOVA, MANOVA, and hierarchical/multi-level modeling, etc.
Note that the second edition of Intermediate Stats does NOT include HLM/MLM and
I don’t think the second edition of Discovering Stats does, either. If you are going to teach an undergrad course, I recommend Crash
Course in SPSS (Blackwell Publishing; 4th edition is current, about
200+ pages; price ??), by Colman and Pulford as something to get you back up to
speed with SPSS. I don’t recommend it as a textbook, though; it’s not really
designed as such. This book has the briefest explanations of the 3 and is
good as a quick “how-to” reference guide. You will want to find another book
as a textbook, though. Of the 3 books, I least recommend this book. It’s good
enough to make my list, but I could get by with the 1st two above. Fred All the best, Fred Weigel Doctoral Student 427 Lowder Business
Building
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In reply to this post by SUBSCRIBE SAS-L Anonymous
What's your academic specialism? Andy Field
is very good on statistics, Julie Pallant is OK if you're into
psychological measurement and are addicted to drop-down menus. Neither do
much on initial data entry, sociology, political science or tabulation, so check
out the entry-level free-to-download SPSS tutorials on my website http://surveyresearch.weebly.com/
All my tutorials use actual data from real surveys.
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Orlando (and everyone else)
Where are you based? What do you
teach/study? If your current experience is reflected in:
hopefully my materials will help you quickly
acquire basic fluency in the language of data processing and
analysis without too much pain.
As far as I'm concerned, the more students access
and use my materials, the merrier. That's why I'm converting and updating
everything from SPSS-X on a mainframe (1992) to SPSS 15 for Windows (hope
they keep it stable for several more years) on a PC (2009). All the
tutorials are on
There's lots more to do on my remaining
materials: if there's anything in the following document that any of you would
like to see, just ask and I'll prioritise it.
The more students know about and use my stuff the
better, especially if they send me feed-back either direct or via the RSS feed
(a friend is working on the latter as feedback currently goes to him).
Writing distance learning materials is not quite like being in a classroom or
computer lab with a couple of dozen eagerly attentive (and critical) trainee
researchers and graduate students.
I've got a copy of the 3rd edition of Pallant
SPSS Survival Manual (McGraw-Hill 2007) still to review, but my
reviews of the first two editions are on my website:
The 3rd edition seems to have taken on board some
of my original points, but there's nowhere near enough on tabulation or file
construction. It's ideal for graduate students desperate to complete
dissertations in psychology, but not much use for sociology, political science
or other fields. It's worth having a look at my 2006 presentation
Old Dog, Old Tricks and the accompanying slide-shows http://surveyresearch.weebly.com/7-old-dog-old-tricks.html These
recount where SPSS came from in the early days and contain critical examinations
of the use (and abuse) of SPSS in various contexts, especially advocating the
clear superiority of syntax over point-and-click for understanding and
controlling what you are doing.
I've just got an advance review copy of Jacqueline
Collier, Using SPSS Syntax: A Beginner's Guide (Sage 2010)
which is a gallant attempt to wean users away from menus and on to syntax,
but it assumes readers to be already familiar with statistics and SPSS drop-down
menus. She is much more aware than Pallant of the fact that other people
(supervisors, colleagues) may need to understand and use your SPSS files (saved
and syntax) and her data sets are larger and more relevant.. I find
the writing at times a little opaque and repetitive, but this can easily be
addressed in future editions. She clearly demonstrates that there are many
facilities in SPSS that are simply not available from the menus, only through
syntax. Difficult to gauge what students will make of it, but I'd
recommend it for library purchase at least. She's much happier dealing
with dates and times than with some of the other applications, but the book
is clearly based on many years of teaching and advising generations of
students in the use of large and important data sets. My stuff sits
earlier in the data capture and analysis process and is perhaps easier to
understand and use: indeed students starting with my stuff should be able to
progress easily to both these and other textbooks, especially for the
more advanced statistics (which, not being a statistician, I don't, and
cannot, cover).
Another advantage of my materials over the
textbooks is that I have colour-coded text and all my examples and
screenshots are in full colour.
I have copies of several other SPSS books to
review for the Social Research Association (including Andy Field, with whom I've
exchanged some interesting correspondence and near-the-knuckle jokes to explain
statistical concepts) but they've been delayed for various reasons. I'm
hoping to get back to them in the New Year before any more new editions come
out. Some of the following must surely have new editions by now and SPSS
is already up to 18. However a lot of academic institutions are
sticking to 15 as it works, and the personal and financial cost of changing
teaching materials is unacceptable.
Darren
George and Paul
Mallery, SPSS for Windows Step-by-Step,
(6th edition, Allyn & Bacon
2006)
Andy Field Discovering Statistics
Using SPSS (Sage,
2005: paper ISBN 978-0-7619-4452-2)
George Argyrous
Statistics for
Research (Sage,
2005: paper ISBN 978-1-4129-1948-7) Eric L Einspruch
An Introductory Guide
to SPSS for Windows
(Sage, 2005: paper ISBN
978-1-4129-0415-5) Neil Salkind
Statistics for People
Who (Think They Hate) Statistics
(Sage, 2004: ISBN
978-0-7619-2776-1)
Eelko Huizingh Applied Statistics
with SPSS (Sage,
2007: paper ISBN 978-1-4129-1931-9)
Paul R Kinnear and Colin D
Gray SPSS 14 Made
Simple
(Psychology Press 2006: paper ISBN
1-84169-651-X) [Mainly medical/psychiatric]
Marija Norusis also sent me a copy
of her new book for Guide to Data Analysis for
SPSS13, so I'll try to do something on that as well,
but she's switched to menus. Her 1990 book is still the best of the lot if
you can still find second-hand copies. At this rate,I'll need to do a
survey to see who uses SPSS and what for: we'll end up doing the
Which? Guide to
SPSS books! Perhaps I should organise a
colloquium and do collective reviews of the lot.
Steve Tagg (Strathclyde) sent me this as well.
That goes most of the way there.
Quotes start with ‘seriousness is the only
refuge of the shallow’ and unfortunately the publisher removed all the bad
language in the first draft. Of course it shows its age by talking about SPSS
data entry, but it has lots of warnings such as “In reporting your findings focus on their
theoretical importance and managerial relevance, not simply on their statistical
significance” (bloody obvious – but…)
35 years ago ago Steve and I used
to joke about producing The Clods'
Guide to Survey Analysis Using SPSS At the rate I'm going,
there may be yet another SPSS book in the making, but don't hold your
breath! My website (along with all the others) should be more than
enough. |
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