Best SPSS statistics book

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
E

Eyeapple

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2010
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Points
0
  1. Psychology Student
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Hi All,
For many reasons, I have not yet taken a class that has been useful in teaching me how to use SPSS to conduct analyses. Any opinions on a good SPSS statistics book that will be user friendly/an easy read?
 
Eyeapple said:
Hi All,
For many reasons, I have not yet taken a class that has been useful in teaching me how to use SPSS to conduct analyses. Any opinions on a good SPSS statistics book that will be user friendly/an easy read?
Click to expand...

Andy Field has a book on SPSS that's easy to read and entertaining. It's my go-to.
 
krisrox said:
Andy Field has a book on SPSS that's easy to read and entertaining. It's my go-to.
Click to expand...

I used that book too (along with some other books simultaneously). His sense of humor was often entertaining.

The nice thing is, you can buy the 2nd edition cheap and it covers all of the same stuff pretty much... The class I was in actually used the older edition to save the students some money!
 
I concur. Field is the best intro-to-intermediate book out there.
 
JN...you mentioned that this is the best intro-to-intermediate...what kind of things does the book not cover? I need to play around with some data, and I'd like a book to brush up on some of the functions, though I'm not sure what is missing from the Field book. We have SPSS 19 here (and 20 as a free upgrade....though we haven't upgraded yet).
 
This is a book that I desperately need. Just sent an email to my friends in my social science discipline telling them how tremendously helpful sdn is.

Would anyone care to suggest a pairing (like cheese and wine) to go with this book--something basic and readable that explains quantitative methods and research design? My stats classes were pretty lousy in that respect. 🙁
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Milk Milk Milk said:
+1 and I also like "Using Multivariate Statistics" by Tabachnick & Fidell
Click to expand...

T&F is a GREAT book, yep. I have probably a half-dozen texts on multivariate stats, and it's probably the eaisest of them all to get through while still maintaining solid breadth and depth of coverage. Plus, they cover both SPSS and SAS outputs.

Cohen, Cohen, West, & Aiken's Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences is also recommended if you want a REALLY in-depth (to the point that I haven't gotten through more than a few chapters thus far) review of those topics while still maintaining good readability.

If you're looking for something with a bit more of a cursory overview of a variety of multivariate stats, I enjoyed Grimm & Yarnold's texts (Reading and Understanding Multivariate Statistics and the aptly-named Reading and Understanding MORE Multivariate Statistics), although they're a bit older now.
 
Last edited:
Field's book is great but is definitely not "advanced" and I actually think even intermediate was generous (esp. since I know JN is a fellow stats geek). I don't know how much has been added in more recent additions but based on my 2nd edition I don't see anything approaching on thorough coverage (or none at all) for:

HLM
GEE
MI
Survival Analysis
CFA
SEM
Bootstrapping
Taxometrics
IRT
Spectral Analysis
ROC
Latent growth models
LCA
Meta-analytic methods (at large)

and many other things that are used anywhere from occasionally to frequently in the literature. Some of these are understandable as they are not well-integrated into SPSS, but others are and were not included in the 2nd edition. This is not to mention that the way it covers the material is pretty simplistic and you won't get a lot of detail.

Don't get me wrong, I love the book and still use it from time to time, but its definitely not going to cover advanced topics.

Wigflip - I don't know where you are at in terms of methods/quant but if you are looking for something very basic, I'd go with Kazdin's "Research Design in Clinical Psychology". Its certainly not a graduate textbook (I'd say intermediate-advanced undergrad), but is a good reference book and not at all a bad starting place if you need a refresher. They even had us read the first couple chapters out of it as a refresher for our Interventions course the first week to make sure everyone was on the same page.
 
Last edited:
Ollie123 said:
Wigflip - I don't know where you are at in terms of methods/quant but if you are looking for something very basic, I'd go with Kazdin's "Research Design in Clinical Psychology". Its certainly not a graduate textbook (I'd say intermediate-advanced undergrad), but is a good reference book and not at all a bad starting place if you need a refresher. They even had us read the first couple chapters out of it as a refresher for our Interventions course the first week to make sure everyone was on the same page.
Click to expand...


Great--thanks Ollie, Psychadelic, and others. Much appreciated.
 
Has anyone read/used Juilie Pallant's "SPSS Survival Manual"? It seems to have good write-ups on Amazon, though I'm wondering if there will be too much cross over with Fields.

My issue is that both of my stats books from grad school AND my notebook went MIA probably 4 years ago (lent out then...*poof* 🙄 ), and I need something to check back to every now and again. I'm trying to find a solid intro to stats book, a reference guide for SPSS (& eventually one for R), and then some supplemental journal articles to fill in the gaps.

*edit: I'll start a new thread for my bootstrapping inquiry.*
 
Therapist4Chnge said:
Has anyone read/used Juilie Pallant's "SPSS Survival Manual"? It seems to have good write-ups on Amazon, though I'm wondering if there will be too much cross over with Fields.

My issue is that both of my stats books from grad school AND my notebook went MIA probably 4 years ago (lent out then...*poof* 🙄 ), and I need something to check back to every now and again. I'm trying to find a solid intro to stats book, a reference guide for SPSS (& eventually one for R), and then some supplemental journal articles to fill in the gaps.

*edit: I'll start a new thread for my bootstrapping inquiry.*
Click to expand...

We got "Using SPSS for Windows and Macintosh: Analyzing and Understanding Data" for our intermediate stats course, and I found the book to be very helpful with respect to the steps for actually conducting analyses and reading output. It also provided very brief overviews of the statistical methods themselves, although it was by no means a substitute for a good intermediate-level stats text.

My edition's a bit dated at this point, though, so I'm not sure how the newer versions stack up.
 
Thanks!

I think that is one of the books my colleague uses (Green &...Serbrink..something like that). Her copy looks like it survived a hurricane, so I'm guessing she has referenced it once or twice. :laugh:

*edit*

Green & Salkind....I was close.
 
Ollie123 said:
Field's book is great but is definitely not "advanced" and I actually think even intermediate was generous (esp. since I know JN is a fellow stats geek). I don't know how much has been added in more recent additions but based on my 2nd edition I don't see anything approaching on thorough coverage (or none at all) for:

HLM
GEE
MI
Survival Analysis
CFA
SEM
Bootstrapping
Taxometrics
IRT
Spectral Analysis
ROC
Latent growth models
LCA
Meta-analytic methods (at large)

and many other things that are used anywhere from occasionally to frequently in the literature. Some of these are understandable as they are not well-integrated into SPSS, but others are and were not included in the 2nd edition. This is not to mention that the way it covers the material is pretty simplistic and you won't get a lot of detail.

Don't get me wrong, I love the book and still use it from time to time, but its definitely not going to cover advanced topics.

Wigflip - I don't know where you are at in terms of methods/quant but if you are looking for something very basic, I'd go with Kazdin's "Research Design in Clinical Psychology". Its certainly not a graduate textbook (I'd say intermediate-advanced undergrad), but is a good reference book and not at all a bad starting place if you need a refresher. They even had us read the first couple chapters out of it as a refresher for our Interventions course the first week to make sure everyone was on the same page.
Click to expand...

Some of those topics aren't relevant to SPSS. Although CFA& SEM are available through AMOS it isn't in the base package and it is usually recommended to use Lisrel for both because AMOS seems to allow you to run models that should not work and never tells you if there are errors in your model specification. So it gives you output for bad models.

I am not aware of any add-ons that allow a person to run IRT using SPSS, this require MULTILOG, BILOG, advanced SAS knowledge, or R.

While you can use HLM in SPSS, the analysis is fairly limited and I prefer the actual HLM software. I believe it is referred to as Linear Mixed Models within SPSS.

If the person wants to learn SPSS, rather than learn about different advanced measurement techniques I think an intro SPSS book would be good. I learned using some blue paperback book called SPSS for windows and mac or something and spending a lot of time playing around with data.\

The other techniques are best learned using the user manual for each of their respective software programs. The manual for MULTILOG is very useful for IRT, LISREL, for SEM & CFA, and the HLM manual that comes along with the student DL is excellent for teaching someone HLM.
 
IOPsych said:
Some of those topics aren't relevant to SPSS. Although CFA& SEM are available through AMOS it isn't in the base package and it is usually recommended to use Lisrel for both because AMOS seems to allow you to run models that should not work and never tells you if there are errors in your model specification. So it gives you output for bad models.

I am not aware of any add-ons that allow a person to run IRT using SPSS, this require MULTILOG, BILOG, advanced SAS knowledge, or R.

While you can use HLM in SPSS, the analysis is fairly limited and I prefer the actual HLM software. I believe it is referred to as Linear Mixed Models within SPSS.

If the person wants to learn SPSS, rather than learn about different advanced measurement techniques I think an intro SPSS book would be good. I learned using some blue paperback book called SPSS for windows and mac or something and spending a lot of time playing around with data.\

The other techniques are best learned using the user manual for each of their respective software programs. The manual for MULTILOG is very useful for IRT, LISREL, for SEM & CFA, and the HLM manual that comes along with the student DL is excellent for teaching someone HLM.
Click to expand...

I've used AMOS for SEM and can testify to the fact that if you don't know what you're doing, it's very easy to come up with fairly nonsensical results. On the plus side, it's very user-friendly (perhaps overly-so?); sort of like powerpoint for SEM.
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
IOPsych said:
Some of those topics aren't relevant to SPSS. Although CFA& SEM are available through AMOS it isn't in the base package and it is usually recommended to use Lisrel for both because AMOS seems to allow you to run models that should not work and never tells you if there are errors in your model specification. So it gives you output for bad models.
Click to expand...

I have not used AMOS, but that is a no-go. I have seen the most sophisticated stats geeks benefit from error messages that allow them to correct their models (or to figure out what they are doing, in general). For me, Mplus strikes a great balance between power and usability when conducting analyses such as SEM and HLM/MLM. Also, you have the benefit of statistical and technical support from the creators of the program in the online, Mplus discussion board when things that seem like they should make sense don't. And the Mplus manual is very clear and straight forward (for the most part).

I have heard that Field's latest edition goes into HLM and dealing with nested data using SPSS. But I agree with others that there are programs (and attendant manuals/books) that are better suited for more advanced analyses. To date, Field's book is the most user-friendly/easy-to-read book on SPSS that I have seen.
 
The Andy Field book is easily my favorite. Can't go wrong
 
Also agree with Andy Field. Love his Beer Goggles study!

And MPLUS > AMOS.
 
The Davis book is shorter and cheaper, also very good.
 
I'm glad I stumbled onto this thread! The new lab I will be working in uses SPSS primarily, so I will likely need to learn how to use it better.
 
Last edited:
Glad I found this board/thread. Had not seen the Field book. Here is a question for you about that book: Have you tried it as a text with undergraduates?

I am teaching undergrad stats to psychology majors in a very conservative place (large university in backwards state in US). Love Fields' humor, but I have visions of some tender flower growing faint and then complaining to the provost about examples that deal with spermicidal properties of Coca-Cola...? 😱
 
AcronymAllergy said:
T&F is a GREAT book, yep. I have probably a half-dozen texts on multivariate stats, and it's probably the eaisest of them all to get through while still maintaining solid breadth and depth of coverage. Plus, they cover both SPSS and SAS outputs.
.
Click to expand...

This brought up a related question, which books besides the Tabachnick & Fidell book do you guys like that have information on how to run analyses in both SPSS and SAS? I'm going to be a postdoc working in a lab that primarily uses SPSS, but I'm a SAS girl at heart. I would like a book that will help me improve my SPSS abilities while maintaining a connection to SAS as well. Any thoughts?
 
Andy Field also has a companion website where he has podcasts and handouts for basic analyses in SPSS here: http://www.statisticshell.com/html/apf.html

All analyses are listed alphabetically in the site (you have to look around). I think he has most of the info on this site that is in the book.

I refer my undergrads to this site for stats help all the time and they love it!
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Cole Davis now has a book with applied science examples, SPSS for Applied Sciences - Basic Statistical Testing. Published By CSIRO. This includes survival analysis. Once you have grasped the basics of this, then more complex texts and guides should come easily.
 
HomeworkHelper said:
This brought up a related question, which books besides the Tabachnick & Fidell book do you guys like that have information on how to run analyses in both SPSS and SAS? I'm going to be a postdoc working in a lab that primarily uses SPSS, but I'm a SAS girl at heart. I would like a book that will help me improve my SPSS abilities while maintaining a connection to SAS as well. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

While it's not a book, http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/ has been the most useful SAS/SPSS go-between website I've found.
 
Thanks, Lisa! I use the SAS side of the UCLA page so often, but I never realized they also had SPSS on there too (duh!) It's probably because I always get to the UCLA pages by searching for "X statistical test sas" in google.
 
This might be a change of topic, but do you use PSPP for practice or feel like you have to buy an SPSS package? What do you guys think?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
Best Companies with EPPP Practice Tests?
Replies
5
Views
3K
WisNeuro
WisNeuro
R
Personal and business finance book recs
Replies
7
Views
1K
R. Matey
R. Matey
S
  • Question Question
Nontraditional student -- best options?
Replies
14
Views
2K
summerbabe
summerbabe
The Cinnabon
A layman's book on trauma/ptsd?
Replies
6
Views
1K
gohogwild
gohogwild
D
PhD/PsyD VA Interview Questions and Best Answers - Performance Based Interviewing
Replies
13
Views
8K
RxPsych
R
Top Bottom